


Boom. Butterfly Effect.

by ColorWithMarker



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Cabins, Mental Breakdown, Mental Instability, Mountains, Multi, Survival Horror, Survivor Guilt, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Until Dawn AU, Wendigo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-02
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 13:18:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 41,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5129024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ColorWithMarker/pseuds/ColorWithMarker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One year ago, Angela and Loki Olson disappeared in the middle of the night from their family cabin. Tonight, their friends go back for a night they won't ever forget.</p><p>Until Dawn AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sharoncarters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sharoncarters/gifts).



**CABIN HALLWAY. 1:56 AM.**

“Oh, come on guys, we really shouldn’t be doing this,” Steve whispered, looking around as if Loki would appear around the corner any second. Bucky, Sharon, and Natasha had their hands over their mouths, hiding their snorts and giggles. Wanda was trying to play along and smiled, but Steve saw that her heart wasn’t into it. Tony was helping Bruce and Pietro attach his cellphone to the selfie stick. Clint crossed his arms and shook his head.

“No way, Steve. He’s had this coming for a long time. We’re just seizing the perfect opportunity,” he insisted.

“They were harmless pranks. None of them even really hurt you. You’re playing with his emotions. That’s not fair.” Steve had thought better of all of them.

“Then he shouldn’t have left his journal around for Bucky to easily find in the locked drawer in his room,” Tony said. He opened the door to the guest room he was using. The girls went in first, then Bucky, Pietro, and Bruce. Steve hesitated but ended up backing away. He wasn’t going to take any part in this. He waited for Tony and Clint to shrug and go inside the room before turning around and calling out for Loki. Maybe if he intercepted the boy on the way here, he could stop him from making a huge mistake.

* * *

 

Tony stood in the back corner of the room. Natasha and Clint were hiding under the bed, the covers pulled down low enough so no one could spot them unless they knew to look there. Pietro and Bruce went inside the wardrobe with the door cracked open far enough to record through. Sharon and Bucky were in the closet. Wanda kneeled behind the dresser, being the smallest one there. Natasha had to elbow Clint to keep him from laughing too loud.

There was a knock on the door. Natasha put her hand over Clint’s mouth and shushed him.

Loki pushed it open. He was holding a candle and wearing a bathrobe and slippers. “Tony? Are you in here?” he asked.

“Come on in,” Tony invited. Loki smiled shyly and pushed the door shut behind him. “Why don’t you put the candle out?”

“Huh? Oh, sure,” Loki said, blowing it out in what he prayed looked sexy and seductive. There was enough light coming in from the outside floodlights anyway, he assumed.

“So, should we start with… making out? And see where it goes from there?” Tony suggested. He expected Loki to go with it, and he was ready to make the sacrifice of having to kiss Thor’s little brother for the sake of humiliating him. What he didn’t expect was Loki to strip off his robe and climb onto the bed. Thankfully, he was wearing what Tony assumed were briefs (they very strongly resembled panties, and he didn’t put it past Loki to steal a pair of his sister’s underwear), but it still caught him off-guard.

“Come here, big boy. I’ll blow you so hard that you’ll black out,” Loki said, in a sudden deep and sultry tone that Tony also didn’t expect. Huh. Guess the journal entry Bucky had found and shown everyone was much more PG than he’d thought.

Of course, that was when Clint’s laughter finally slipped out of his mouth and around Natasha’s hand, which had been struggling to muffle the noise, and was loud enough for even Tony to hear. Loki’s seductive act dropped and he looked around. “Who’s that? Who’s there?” he asked.

One by one, everyone revealed themselves. Wanda stood from behind Tony. Bucky and Sharon exited the closet. Clint and Natasha crawled from underneath the bed, making Loki hug his legs to his chest. Pietro and Bruce were the last to reveal themselves, the former holding the selfie stick and cellphone. Loki’s gaze was locked with the phone.

Steve burst into the room. “Loki!” he exclaimed. He looked around and saw that Loki had figured it all out. He quickly grabbed the bathrobe and tried to help Loki put it back on, but instead, Loki snatched the bathrobe and fled the room. “Loki, wait!” he called out. He turned back to his friends and snapped, “You guys are jerks!” before running after Loki.

“Oh, come on Steve, it was hilarious!” Clint insisted as the group followed.

* * *

 

**CABIN KITCHEN. 2:04 AM.**

Angela wandered in to see her beloved and her brother with their heads resting on the counter. She walked over and picked up one of the bottles. Father’s finest liquor. It wasn’t like their father would miss it.

“Way to outdo yourself, brother,” she chuckled. Thor didn’t budge. Sera twitched then went back to snoozing. Angela kissed her temple and ran her fingers through her hair. A note on the table caught her eye. She picked it up and read it:

_Loki_

_You look pretty sexy in those jeans._  
_Bet you’d look sexier without them._  
_Come to the guest room at 2 AM ;)_

_Tony_

Angela shook her head. “What did our naïve baby brother get himself into now?” she wondered aloud.

Outside, a shadow moved past the window. It looked too narrow to be one of the elk they’d seen earlier.

“What was that? Didn’t Father say it’d just be us this weekend?” Angela asked. No answer. She sighed and ignored the shadow. Who would come up on a mountain during a snowstorm anyway? No one else owned cabins this far out anyway.

A door slammed on the far side of the house. It sounded like the front door. Angela looked between the kitchen door and her brother. No point in poking the drunk bear. She ran out the kitchen doors and to the atrium. Everyone was standing outside, their backs turned to her. Everyone but Loki.

Angela pushed past them. “Where’s my brother?” she asked. She noticed the phone and selfie stick and felt her stomach drop.

“He got worked up over something stupid,” Clint answered.

“It was just a prank, Lokes,” Natasha added.

The note. Angela clenched her fists. “What’s your guys’ problem? You jackasses!”

“Angela…” Steve began. But Angela was already running out into the snow, following Loki’s footsteps and not listening to whatever he was going to say. He didn’t even know how to tell her what had happened.

“Should we follow them?” Tony asked.

Steve glared at him. “You’re probably the last person Loki wants to see right now,” Steve said. He pushed past him to get back inside. One by one, everyone shuffled in. Wanda closed the doors behind them. Everyone gathered in the den, waiting for Angela and Loki to come back to explain and apologize. At least they all looked as terrible as they really were, Steve thought angrily.

* * *

 

Angela ran as fast as she could. Damn Tony for tricking her baby brother into going into his room. Damn whoever found out that Loki had a huge crush on Tony. Damn Pietro for filming it. Damn Thor for being too drunk to kick ass and take names right now. Damn the fucking cold.

Angela cried out for her brother and followed the footsteps. She had to stop every now and then to shield her eyes from the snow. Follow the footsteps. Follow the footsteps. They could only be his. They had the little imprints from the bottom of his slippers that they got in Madrid during Christmas vacation. Eventually, there were no more lights to guide the way, and she had no choice but to use her halfway-charged phone as a flashlight to see the path. A ball of fire came between two trees above her. She jumped back. Fire? On a mountain in Canada during snow? Oh, god, she needed to find Loki.

Then she heard sniffling. No doubt her brother, crying over his broken heart. She found him hunched over in the snow, only dressed in his robe. His pale, hairless legs stuck out under it.

“Oh, god, Loki, you must be freezing!” Angela shoved her phone in her pocket and shucked off her coat. She forced Loki’s arms into it as he sobbed.

“I’m so stupid,” he cried. “I can’t believe I fell for that.”

“Yeah, they’re all getting beat up when we get back there. I promise. Here, come on. Up we go.” Angela helped pull Loki to his feet. He fell against her, his tears soaking her sweater.

A vague screech came from somewhere beyond the trees. Loki’s sobbing ceased and both siblings looked toward it. It came from the direction of the cabin.

“Angela…”

“Loki….”

Angela grabbed Loki’s arm and began running. Loki cried as they did, and Angela fought to keep a strong grip, but lost it when he tripped on the bridge. She helped him up and forced him to keep running. If this was another prank, she was going to kill those assholes.

They found themselves cornered at the edge of a cliff very quickly. Loki held her hand tight. They were both shaking, but not from the cold. They turned around to not see anything, but hear the screech come closer. It was too inhuman to be their so-called friends.

“No!” Loki cried.

“Fuck, no! You stay away!” Angela shouted. The siblings backed toward the edge, and Loki’s foot slipped out from under him. The two were pulled down off the cliff, but Angela managed to grab the branch before they fell. Loki’s crying worsened, and began swearing.

“Hold on!” Angela pleaded. Above them, flames shot out. Now Angela was terrified. This wasn’t going to end well for them, she knew it.

A shadowed figure above them held out its hand. Angela looked down between her brother and the hand. If she wanted to, she could let go of him and grab the hand. But the hand could be a murdering rapist. Or worst, it wouldn’t be, but she would have dropped her brother into the mines mother always warned them about.

Fuck it. Mother always worried too much. She’d rather be with her brother than take her chances on whoever had been stalking and chasing them.

She screamed as she let go.

* * *

 

**CABIN DEN. 7:38 AM.**

Sera had come to first, and bumbled into the den to see everyone sitting around, baggy eyes and worried expressions. Neither Angela nor Loki were present. She wanted to assume they were sleeping, but her friends’ faces said otherwise.

“What’s going on?” she asked. No one answered. They all looked between one another instead, as if waiting for someone to speak up first. “What happened? Where’s Angela?”

Steve stood up. Everyone’s eyes suddenly were glued to the floor. “It was a dumb prank, Sera. Loki overreacted and ran outside, and Angela went to get him,” he explained.

Thor came into the room behind Sera, and Steve stiffened. “What happened?” he asked groggily.

“Loki overreacted to a prank and Angela’s going to bring him back inside,” Sera said.

“Yeah, she did, but the thing is… that was five and a half hours ago. They haven’t come back,” Steve continued. Sera looked panicked, and Thor looked angered. Shit. Someone was going to get their arm broken or something, Steve could sense it.

“And have you done nothing? All of you?” Thor demanded. Silence. “They couldn’t have gone far! They’re probably at the other cabin.” Thor pointed to Sharon. “Come with me to look for them. Sera, hold down the fort.”

“Got it,” Sharon and Sera said. The blonds grabbed their coats and boots and headed off into the daylight. Sera sat down where Sharon had been, between Natasha and Tony.

“What was the prank?” Sera asked. Again, silence. “…How bad was it?” More silence. Wanda quietly stood and took Tony’s phone from the coffee table. She opened it to the video from the night and showed it to Sera. The volume was turned up all the way, so everyone was forced to relive it as Sera watched. She kept her emotions masked, though flashes of anger glinted in her eyes now and then. When it ended, Sera stood and walked back into the kitchen. A minute later, they heard her talking on the landline to the police to report two missing persons.

“They’re dead,” Clint whispered.

“Don’t say that,” Bruce said sternly.

“They’re dead and it’s my fault. It was my half-baked idea. I got them killed.”

“I was the one who snooped through Loki’s things. You wouldn’t have thought about it if it wasn’t for me,” Bucky said.

“And who gave you that dumb idea?” Natasha asked.

“None of you made Loki run outside,” Tony insisted. “He could have just as easily ran upstairs. He chose to run outside. None of you did this.”

That didn’t make anyone feel any more comforted.

Sera came back into the den. She stood there and told Tony, “Delete the video.” He did so and showed her for proof. She nodded and walked to the door, waiting for Thor and Sharon to come back.

* * *

 

**TWO MONTHS LATER. DUBOIS FUNERAL HOME. 12:48 PM.**

The search had been cut in half after three weeks of searching. Another three and they called it off together. Steve, who was checking on Thor, was over when Mrs. Olson found out. Her cries still haunted him. That night still haunted him.

Nothing had been the same since.

Sera moved to America. She said she had applied to study abroad a long time ago and the approval had just come through, but everyone knew she couldn’t bear to look any of them anymore.

Loki’s best friend, Verity, who had been visiting family while they were at the cabin, had attempted suicide. She was found in the family car in the garage, both that and the minivan running.

Thor insisted he was okay. He’d gone to therapy with Dr. Jane Foster to prove it. She was hot, according to him.

Now, at the funeral, Steve stood awkwardly in the back of the room next to Tony, Sam, and Sharon. Natasha was sitting with Bruce and Bucky a few rows ahead. Pietro and Wanda were closer to the front. Clint didn’t come. He still blamed himself. Steve held Sharon’s hand throughout the service. A few times, she had to nudge him and ask him to loosen his grip before he crushed her hand.

* * *

 

**FOUR MONTHS LATER. EAST ALBERTA HIGH SCHOOL. 5:30 PM.**

They honored Loki at what should have been his high school graduation. Their class valedictorian talked about him during her speech. The group had gone in support of those in their group who was graduating as well, Sharon, Wanda, and Pietro. All were solemn as they accepted their diplomas. They couldn’t even fake it for the camera posed to take their picture with either vice-principal.

Thor insisted they came over to his house to celebrate. He was wasted after twenty minutes, and passed out before the first hour passed. Everyone helped get him into bed and bunked in the living room. They had trouble sleeping with the pictures of Loki and Angela all staring back at them, mocking them and blaming them for their disappearance.

The next day was Angela’s birthday. She would have been twenty-two. Thor got black-out drunk again.

* * *

 

**TEN MONTHS LATER. STARK MANSION. 9:37 PM.**

Today was Loki’s birthday. He would have been nineteen. Everyone sat around and told stories they remembered about him. Clint shared nothing. Wanda shared the most stories, and arguably the nicest ones, too.

Thor insisted on being alone.

* * *

 

**ELEVEN MONTHS LATER. UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA’S ARTS AND HUMANITIES CAMPUS. 4:03 PM.**

Sharon texts everyone, asking if they saw Thor’s message. Steve, who was with Sam, Bucky, and Tony at the time, went to the nearest computer lab and checked Steve’s email. There was a video message from Thor, filmed from the cabin, inviting them back. He said that the anniversary of Angela and Loki’s disappearance should be a day for friendship, not moping and depression. Everyone who could come should come. He emphasized that heavily and said it seven times.

Steve felt bad. Tony did too. They decided they would go. Sam decided that because he wasn’t involved that he would stay uninvolved. Bucky said there was something off about Thor lately and that he’d rather stay back with Sam.

Natasha and Sharon were going, claiming to need a break from university for a nice weekend. Clint flat-out refused. He still felt like shit, but promised to stay with Sam and Bucky so they could ensure he didn’t so something regrettable.

Bruce also felt bad and wanted to go. Pietro and Wanda, who were with him, said the same. Wanda mentioned later that Thor hadn’t sent the message to Sera or Verity. It was decidedly for the best.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A couple things to keep in mind when you read this:
> 
> The dialogue is not the same on purpose.
> 
> Some of the characters are switched in the story from who they originally were in the game (aka a scene where it was Sam and Chris in the game in this story it would be Sam and Jess, and so on).
> 
> Sam, Bucky, and Clint won't make another appearance until the end of the story. I wanted to keep this to eight characters to keep it simpler.

**BLACKWOOD PINES ENTRANCE. 9:02 PM. 10 HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

Steve watched the video of Thor’s second informal information, smirking as he said that they would “party like they’re fucking porn stars”. He was taking this pretty well for someone whose family was being broadcast on every local news station. It was the one-year anniversary of Angela and Loki’s disappearance. Clint, Sam, and Bucky said they were going to do shots in their honor (tequila and vodka, respectively, as those were the siblings’ go-to drinks) and offered Steve two for the road, but he said that he’d rather be sober. Just in case Thor went off the handle.

It still baffled Steve that Thor was going this. Personally, if he was in Thor’s hoes, and his own younger brother had been killed, the last thing he’d want to do is go back to the last place he’d saw them. He wouldn’t be able to handle that Oh well, he thought. To each his own.

The bus dropped Steve off at the entrance to Blackwood Pines. He stretched out first, having been sitting for a few hours and already getting stiff. As he did, he heard a crunch, very similar to a footstep. He straightened and looked around, but saw no one was there. He shivered. Everyone had convinced themselves (for the most part) that there wasn’t some serial killer hiding in the mountains that got to Angela and Loki that awful night. That didn’t automatically end his personal paranoia, and he speed-walked his way to the gate and tried to open it a little too forcefully. He was confused when the gate stayed shut. Then he noticed the piece of paper taped onto it. He picked it up and help it closer to his face.

_Gate’s busted. Climb over._

_-Sharon_

Steve smirked at Sharon’s god-awful handwriting and tried taping the note onto the gate as best he could. Hopefully the ice would help it stick.

Steve checked out the brick surrounding the gate before picking a good spot that had enough bricks sticking out for him to balance with. He hoisted himself upwards and straddled the top before shoving himself to the other side, safe from any potential stalkers. Thank god he took all those parkour classes last year.

As he made his way to the cable car station, a red squirrel hopped into his path. Steve was a sucker for animals. He reached into his coat pocket and took out some of the trail mix he ate earlier. He stood still as the squirrel came over to take a couple for himself, cooing quietly at the animal. He dropped the rest of the food and brushed the crumbs on his glove off on his jeans. Sure, he sees squirrels all the time in town, but they were always so cute.

He found himself upon the cable car station not too long later, but no sign of anyone or anything outside of a lone backpack propped on a bench. One of the zippers was open and a cellphone poking out and buzzing. As he got closer, he recognized it as Sharon’s bag. Why did she just leave it sitting out? He zipped up her bag and looked around. Still no one.

“Boo!” Sharon jumped from behind a tree, making a face that made Steve snort. She pouted at him. “That’s not the reaction I was looking for.”

“Sorry, but that wasn’t scary at all,” Steve apologized. Sharon rolled her eyes and walked up to him. She poked his chest twice.

“I am the queen of screams. I get Clint all the time, I’ll have you know.”

“That doesn’t count. I’m not Clint, and Clint gets scared when someone pokes his shoulder.”

“Does too count.” Sharon unzipped her bag and pulled out her phone. She smiled at the message.

“Who’s that?” Steve asked.

“My Aunt Peggy. She says she wants proof that Tony and I made it up here without being killed,” Sharon explained.

“You and Tony?”

“Yeah,” she said absently. Sharon put her phone away. Steve insisted to himself that he didn’t feel jealous. After all, it was Tony, and Tony could get around. “So,” Sharon said, “I found the coolest thing.”

“Your definition of cool is way different than mine,” Steve said.

“Shut up and follow me.” Steve shrugged off his bag and followed Sharon. She led him to a small wooden stand, where a shotgun and a box of ammo sat. “Cool, right?”

“Why is there a gun all the way out here?” Steve asked, looking warily at the sandbags hanging from the trees some yards out.

“Uh, have you met Thor’s family? They love hunting and shooting and all that jazz.” Sharon picked up the gun and aimed it at a sandbag. She hit it perfectly, then did the same to a bag sitting on a barrel.

“Nice shooting, Tex,” Steve teased with a slight Southern drawl.

“Aunt Peggy showed me how to shoot a while back,” Sharon said. Steve watched as Sharon aimed again, and the squirrel he’d fed a minute ago leapt onto one of the barrels, eating a cashew. Steve held his breath as Sharon aimed her gun close to where the squirrel was, then exhaled as she shot another sandbag. He didn’t know what he’d do if she shot the squirrel.

“We should head back and see if the cable car is here,” Steve said.

* * *

 

**CABLE CAR STATION. 9:11 PM.**

No, the cable car hadn’t arrived yet. It was still inching its way to them. Sharon rolled her eyes in annoyance and began wandering around the station. The inside of the station was boring, just a few lockers and windows. The wanted poster next to the lockers held her interest for a few moments, but it looked so old that the person was probably dead already. How boring. Maybe Aunt Peggy knew about this. She had to remember to ask when she got back home.

“Cable car’s here!” Steve called out. Sharon nodded to herself and headed out of the station and into the cable car. Steve sat next to her and rested his hands on his lap.

“Just like going to prom,” Sharon teased. Steve didn’t look like he found her joke funny. Oh well. She knew that she was hilarious. The cable car jerked as it started heading up. “So, this is painfully awkward for you too, right?”

“Oh, god, yes,” Steve said, sighing and relaxing his body. “I thought I was the only one.”

“No, everyone else said they felt it too. No one wants to bring it up around Thor, though. We’re all afraid that he’s going through enough tonight without needing us to remind him of it every second. And, I mean, how does he _not_ hate us?” Sharon blurted.

“Hate us? Why would he hate us?”

“Well… you know, because of our prank? He knows we played a huge role in this. I’m surprised he didn’t strangle all of us by now.”

“Thor? Really? He didn’t seem mad about it to me.”

“Steve, you were the good guy in this. You actually tried to stop it from happening. Look at Clint. He’s still having problems forgiving himself. And I went along with it! We all treated Loki like shit!” Sharon paused and ran her hands over her face, careful to avoid her eye makeup. “I’d hate us if I were him.”

Steve patted Sharon’s shoulder and kept his hand there. “Well, you’re not Thor. He’s always one to give everyone the benefit of the doubt,” Steve said. “I’m sure he doesn’t blame any of us.”

Sharon gave a weak smile. She was far from convinced. She stared out the cable car and let the conversation end there awkwardly.

* * *

 

**CABLE CAR STATION. 9:17 PM.**

 Pietro looked up as he heard the cable car screech to a stop. Whoever was inside were the last to arrive for the night, according to Thor. He stood up and brushed the seat of his pants.

“Time to meet and greet,” he told himself. He almost had his hand on the button to unlock the door when Sharon jumped out, causing him to jump and scream. Sharon doubled over with her arms holding her stomach.

“Told you so!” she cackled to a slightly-amused Steve.

“That was a horrible prank!” he whined.

“But it worked!”

Pietro crossed his arms. “Maybe I’ll just leave you smart-asses in there.”

“Oh, come on, Pietro! It only opens from the outside!” Steve insisted. He nudged Sharon. “Apologize so he’ll let us out.”

Sharon rolled her eyes. “Fine. Pietro, I’m sorry,” she said. Pietro nodded and unlocked the door. Sharon added, “Sorry you’re easy to scare.” Steve shrugged to Pietro. “So, where’s your sis?”

“She heard that there’s a telescope on some higher ground and went there to look through it. Also, Dad wants a few pictures of the scenery,” Pietro answered. “I was going to go get her after I let you guys out of the cable car.”

“I’ll do it,” Steve said. “I might get a few snapshots while I’m up there for a few new paintings.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course. Besides, you’ve been out here for a while. Go warm up,” he insisted. Pietro nodded and pointed in the direction Wanda went, and Steve hiked up there.

Sharon linked their arms and smiled. “Looks like it’s you and me,” she said as they walked the path to the cabin.

* * *

 

**PATH TO CABIN. 9:20 PM.**

Holy shit was he ready to get lucky this weekend.

Bruce knew the layout of the cabin for the most part. There were three official bedrooms and seven guest rooms. Three guest rooms were on the first floor, and four were on the second. One of the guest rooms on the first floor were separated from the others, with no bedroom above or below it. If he or Natasha was able to secure it, she promised that tonight would be the night they finally went all the way after their near seven months of dating. They’d only made it to second base so far, with Natasha jerking him off in the parking lot of the local movie theater. And she even teased him a bit on their way here, going as far as to pull down her jeans far enough to show him her underwear – or rather lack of.

Holy shit he was going to get lucky.

Natasha, he learned, was mostly unbothered by the cold, and had offered to carry his bag or hand over her coat if he was that cold (was he shivering that badly). He lied and said he was shivering with anticipation, and she laughed. With him, not at him, he hoped.

And to help keep his mind off the below-freezing-point temperature and rapidly-growing gusts of wind and snow, she told him in full detail how she wanted their night to go. He was nearly sweating, and just as it got to the point where they were going to both be nude, Tony jumped out and scared him shitless, then laughed when he started wheezing for air.

“Not funny, Stark,” Natasha scolded as she patted Bruce on the back.

“Uh, no, that was extremely funny,” Tony insisted. “Although I am starting to regret interrupting you. So what happens after you suck on Bruce’s fingers?” He laughed as Natasha pegged him in the arm with a snowball. Bruce noticed how she made sure there was more ice in the snowball than snow. “Oh, don’t get mad! It sounded hot.”

“What, you looking for an invitation?”

“Oh, totally. I’ve always wanted to get into bed with Brucey-poo!” Tony puckered his lips at Bruce, who ignored Tony. This wasn’t unusual.

“So what are you doing out here?” asked a now-relaxed Bruce.

“Sharon said she’d be up here by now so I’m going down to see if she actually came or if she’s lying,” Tony answered. “Have you guys seen her?”

“No. We only saw Pietro at the station.”

“Cool. Well, I’m gonna make sure they weren’t eaten by a bear or something. See ya on the flipside!” Tony put his hands in his pockets and whistled as he walked past them. After he was a safe distance away, he turned around and asked, “So, can I bunk with you guys tonight?” and had to dodge another snowball thrown by Natasha.

“He’s just kidding, you know,” Bruce said as he and Natasha began trekking their way to the cabin again.

“I don’t know with him sometimes,” Natasha said.

* * *

 

**BLACKWOOD PINES GAZEBO. 9:32 PM.**

Wanda felt her breath escape with each new view of the mountain. It was beautiful up here. Last year, Loki showed her this spot, and they woke up early to watch the sunrise. He brought his sketchbook and his pastels to capture its glory on paper. Wanda wiped at her eyes. She didn’t want to cry over him anymore, but she couldn’t help herself. Though she was certain most of the others didn’t care for Loki, she lost a true friend a year ago.

Wanda lowered the telescope to see Natasha and Bruce nearing the cabin. She smiled. Young love was typically stupid love, but she didn’t feel that way with them. She panned further down the path to see Pietro with Sharon and Tony. Guess her brother wasn’t waiting like he said he would.

“See something interesting?” Steve asked. Wanda looked up.

“Not really,” she said.

“Mind if I take a look around? I could use a few good shots for a new series I’m painting.”

“Go on ahead.”

“Thanks.” Steve walked over to the telescope and looked through, and his friendly smile dropped quickly. He moved back. “Never mind.”

“What? Why?” Wanda looked into the lens and saw Sharon and Tony hugging and talking. She remembered that Pietro heard from Clint who heard from Sam that Steve had a huge crush on Sharon. Uh oh. She asked, “Are you ready to go to the cabin? We can always come back up here in the morning. The sunrise is breath-taking.”

“Sure,” Steve answered, his jaw clenched. Wanda grabbed her bag and followed Steve, hoping whatever anger he held would dissipate by the time they were all grouped together.

* * *

 

**OUTSIDE THE CABIN. 9:41 PM.**

“It’s so quiet out here,” Natasha said.

“It’s a secluded area on a mountain. It’s not a college campus,” Bruce said.

“I know, but there’s something eerie about it.” Natasha took out her phone and started searching through her music to find a good song to play. She chose Alex Turner’s _Piledriver Waltz_ and put it on repeat, even though the first play would more than likely end after they reached the cabin. “Much better, don’t you think?”

Suddenly, something hard and cold hit the back of her head. Natasha stopped walking and reached to feel what it was. Her glove was damp and there were little bits of ice stuck to the red fabric. A snowball. She looked to see Bruce had hidden, but a trail of footprints sold him out. Natasha crouched and made two snowballs – a decoy and a real one. She tossed the decoy in her hand a few times in the air to test how light it was, before hitting the tree where Bruce had to be hiding behind. The real one followed once the decoy landed, and nailed Bruce in the shoulder. She had to be careful and avoid his face, namely his glasses. He yelped and she grinned. There was no point in hiding. He was just as smart as she was. He’d find her just as fast too. So she made herself some more snowballs and waited patiently for Bruce to come out of hiding. He wouldn’t fall for her trick twice in a row.

Bruce eventually came out of hiding, having gathered his own collection of snowballs, and the two laughed and threw them at each other. Natasha eventually stood to gain leverage, and when Bruce was close enough, she grabbed him and shoved snow down the back of his shirt. He lost balance and fell forward before she could straighten them. She landed on her back with him on top of her (he wasn’t much heavier than her, thankfully). They recovered quickly and found themselves lost in each other’s eyes. Natasha thought about grabbing another fistful of snow when Bruce suddenly kissed her with such passion that the thought of getting him again escaped her completely. She grabbed onto the front of his jacket and pulled him closer. One of his gloved hands tangled in her hair, and the other grabbed her butt. She could feel him harden and knew that they needed to stop before someone (namely Tony) saw them.

“Save some for later, big guy,” she teased as she pulled away. She gave his lip one last nip before sitting up.

“Wish you would’ve stopped me sooner before I…” Bruce began, looking away and smiling shyly. Natasha grinned and grabbed a handful of snow, stuffing it into the front of his pants before he could stop her.

“Problem solved.”


	3. Chapter 2

**OUTSIDE THE CABIN. 10:00 PM. 9 HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

Thor was waiting outside when Bruce and Natasha arrived. Natasha gave Thor a hug first, and though Bruce meant to only give a handshake, he was pulled into a hug as well, much to Natasha’s obvious amusement. Steve and Wanda were both sitting on the front steps, three bags sitting in the snow by them. The couple added their own to the pile and waved politely.

“Hey, Thor, it was cool that you invited us all up here again,” Bruce began.

“It was no problem. It’s what my brother and sister would have wanted,” Thor insisted. Bruce hesitated asking another question, but he was sure being up here was a bad enough memory to not bring up Angela and Loki further. He instead followed Thor up the stairs to the door, where Thor jiggled the handle and frowned. “It’s frozen shut.”

“From where, the inside?” Natasha asked.

“Must be. There are many windows open on the second floor.”

“Maybe one of the ones on the first floor are open too. Someone could climb inside and get the door open,” Bruce suggested.

“That is an excellent idea, my friend! Come, let us check for an open window!” Thor clapped a hand Bruce’s back. “We shall return, Natasha, and make sure you don’t freeze out here.”

“That sounds lovely,” Natasha said, smiling in a way that Bruce immediately recognized. She knew something, but she wasn’t going to flat-out say it because she didn’t want one of them to know she knew. But what caused that? He turned and let Bruce lead the way around the cabin. He didn’t see Natasha turning the handle and pushing the door open a smidge. He did, however, hear her telling Steve and Wanda that the door was frozen shut and that they’d be let in soon.

As they walked around the cabin, Thor shouldered Bruce, saying, “Natasha looks quite attractive tonight, don’t you think?”

“Uh, well, I think she looks attractive every night,” Bruce replied.

“But those other nights are not tonight. Tonight, we will be in a cabin, with no parents or roommates around. There are rooms galore and romance and eroticism in the air. You must be thinking of seizing this golden opportunity. Who knows, maybe someone else would take the chance…”

Bruce stopped himself and Thor, his grip on the other’s jacket turning his knuckles white. “Stop,” he said sternly.

Thor put his hands up in defeat. “I was merely jesting. I know you and Natasha have eyes for no one but each other. I was making sure of it. Nothing more,” he said calmly. Bruce let go and they went back to walking, but with more side-eying from Bruce.

They neared the back when Bruce spotted what looked like a dumpster. He made his way over and motioned for Thor to followed, who grinned and said, “Excellent idea, my friend!” They pushed it to one of the windows, and Bruce climbed on top. The window slid open easily, and Bruce hoisted himself up and through, only to tip all the way forward and land on the floor rather than the table directly beneath the window. He groaned and tried to sit up.

“I should’ve paid more attention in climbing class,” he grunted.

“You mean ‘gym’?” Thor asked.

“No, not gym, the actual class when we had to climb the rope. Remember? Oh, forget it.” Bruce stood and brushed off his pants. Damn, the inside of the cabin was dusty. He knew someone in the group was asthmatic, but not which person. It was Steve or Sam or Bucky.

“Hey, I just had the best idea,” Thor said. He tossed Bruce a lighter. “In the bathroom, there’s deodorant. Use that with the lighter to unfreeze the door handle.”

“What? That doesn’t make any sense,” Bruce said.

“It’s not a stick. It’s spray-on.”

“Oh. _Oh_ , like a flamethrower.”

“Yes, like a flamethrower! I shall meet you at the front door with the others.” Thor gave him a mock salute and hopped down. Bruce was going to ask why Thor didn’t just climb in too, since it was his cabin, but didn’t. It was all strange, but he associated it with the time of year. It only made sense that he’d be acting strange.

Bruce flicked the lighter on and wandered around the cabin. He knew the main bathroom was upstairs so headed for the staircase. He noticed the family portrait in the hall, with Thor and his parents standing in the background, and Loki and Angela sitting in front of them, all smiling. Bruce wondered if they would ever sell this cabin – and, better yet, why hadn’t they sold the cabin yet. He would if his children disappeared and presumed dead. There were too many horrible memories plagued with it. At the stairs, he found another picture, from prom. It had Steve, Tony, Natasha, and Loki, smiling at the camera. It was before Natasha and Bruce started dating, and Natasha had taken Loki to prom because Thor and Angela felt bad that he was the only one not going. Bruce wondered where it all went south and put the picture back down.

Up the stairs and in the bathroom, Bruce decided it had to be under the sink, which it was. As he reached for the can, a _something_ jumped out and was gone in a blur that had Bruce swearing and shaking. He accidentally dropped the lighter and sat in the dark, forcing his heart to stop racing. It was just a little animal. He had no clue what kind, and he really didn’t want to find out. Maybe it was a raccoon, and those were vicious little fuckers.

Bruce went downstairs and saw Natasha and Wanda by the door. He held up the lighter and deodorant to the knob and used his makeshift flamethrower. After ten seconds, he stopped and opened the door, wincing as his fingers burned and waving them around.

“My hero,” Natasha said with a flirty smile.

“Thanks. I’ll be here all wee – _AH!_ ” Bruce jumped as the animal came out of nowhere and ran out the front door. He glared at Natasha and Wanda, who were laughing. Steve and Thor were standing behind them, smirking. “It scared me! It was like a raccoon or something.”

“It was just a wolverine cub,” Wanda said. “Nothing to be so frightened of.” Bruce rolled his eyes and pushed the door open further. Natasha pulled him to the side and gave him a kiss, doing it too forcefully for Bruce to go along with, yet convincing enough for everyone to see and walk by without giving them a second look (except for Thor, who gave him a thumbs-up).

Once Wanda, Thor, and Steve walked past, Natasha pulled away and whispered, “You didn’t need to do that.”

“What? Of course I did,” Bruce whispered back.

“No, you didn’t. The door was never locked.”

“Are you sure?”

“I opened it the second you and Thor walked away.”

“Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because clearly _someone_ is hiding something and that was the perfect diversion to get away from us. And don’t you dare say that you know.”

“I’ve been getting the same vibes.”

“Wait a few minutes for me to create a distraction.”

“Got it.” Bruce received another kiss before Natasha motioned for him to walk on ahead. In the den, Thor was messing with the fireplace, Wanda was standing in the corner past Thor, and Steve was standing by the doorway with his arms crossed. Bruce went up to Steve and asked, “Everything okay?”

“Peachy,” Steve answered. Bruce left it at that when Natasha came in behind him and shook her head. Guess someone started drama without him noticing.

Pietro, Sharon, and Tony came in not thirty seconds later, dropping off their bags and relaxing. Tony say on the couch with Sharon leaning against him, both texting away on their phones. Steve rolled his eyes and huffed loud enough to get Tony’s attention. Tony looked up. “I’m sorry, is there a problem?” he asked.

“I don’t know, Stark. Is there?” Steve retorted.

“Look, I get that you’re not my biggest fan, but I haven’t done anything.”

“Hah. _Yet_.”

“What the hell is up your ass?”

“Guys, please don’t start anything,” Bruce said.

“I know that you love to cheat on Pepper whenever she’s not with you, but for once, could you spare her the pain and try not to? Especially with Sharon,” Steve said.

“Whoa, what the fuck, man!” Tony exclaimed, as Sharon sat up and yelled, “What’s your damage Steve?”

“Oh, please, Stark, like any of us wouldn’t expect it from you. I’m surprised you haven’t tried stealing Natasha from Bruce yet. It wouldn’t be the first time you made her cheat on someone with you.”

Tony stood up and stepped closer to Steve. “Get this straight, Rogers. Sharon and I aren’t fucking. Nat and I aren’t fucking. And I sure as hell am not cheating on Pepper,” he said. “And really? Not only do you think I would cheat on Pep, but you think I’d try to ‘steal’ my best friend’s girlfriend? Do you think that lowly of me?”

“Didn’t stop you from doing that when Natasha and Bucky were together,” Steve said.

“Okay, okay, Steve, you’re pushing things too far,” Bruce tried to defuse.

“Oh, _I_ am? What about last year, when someone _volunteered_ himself to pretend to want to sleep with Loki?”

“Enough!” Thor snapped. Everyone froze and looked at him. Bruce was shocked that he didn’t look angry (though he was sure Natasha had an idea as to why). Thor pointed at Steve and Tony. “I wanted us to come here to celebrate, not to fight. If you cannot get through tonight without doing so, then you two need to be separated.”

There was a moment of silence, before Tony said, “I’ll go. I remember something about a smaller cabin not too far from here.”

“You’re right. I thought you and Pepper would enjoy it, but since she’s not here…”

“I’ll go with him,” Sharon volunteered. “We promised we’d call our folks anyway, and they wouldn’t like hearing that someone was exiled from the main house.” They grabbed their bags and headed for the front door. Both gave glares to Steve, Sharon’s being more disappointed than Tony’s. Once they’d slammed the front door shut, everyone pretended it hadn’t happened. Wanda and Pietro sat on the couch where Sharon and Tony had been, texting their parents to let them know they arrived safely. Steve sat on the chair. Thor went back to tend to the fireplace, and Bruce decided to help.

“I’m sorry that that happened,” Bruce said.

“Tis fine, my friend. It always expect those two to butt heads no matter the occasion. That’s just who they are,” Thor said.

“Oh, god damn it,” Natasha said loudly. She wandered around the room, gaining everyone’s attention. “Has anyone seen my bag?”

“What bag did you bring?” Pietro asked.

“It’s black, with silver spider webs designed around it. I got it in November when that guy was selling things in the main hall. Bruce, you know what I’m talking about, right?” Natasha asked.

“Well, uh, I could’ve sworn you brought it inside,” he said.

“It’s not here. It must be outside where were having a snowball fight. Can you come look with me?”

This must’ve been the distraction. “Oh, uh, sure thing. Be right there.”

“Do not wander too far,” Thor said. “It’s supposed to be freezing.”

“It shouldn’t take too long,” Natasha promised. She grabbed Bruce’s hand and pulled him outside the cabin.

* * *

 

**BACK PORCH. 10:43 PM.**

“You, Sharon, have the worst taste in men,” Tony said after he and Sharon shut the door.

“I can’t believe that he even went off like that! I mean, that was so out of left field. What did you do to piss him off anyway?” Sharon replied.

“Beats me! I’m still surprised that he thought we were an item.”

Thor opened the door behind them and held up a key. “Here you are,” he said as he handed them to Tony. “There’s a generator that you need to turn on to light up the way. Make sure not to stray the path. There are wild animals out here that I won’t be held accountable for attacking you.”

“I can’t imagine them being any worse than Steve,” Tony said. Sharon smacked his arm. Thor grinned and went back inside. Tony and Sharon headed down the stairs and toward the path.

“Oh, wow, this background is amazing! Tony, here, take a selfie with me. We can send it to the family,” Sharon said. She turned on her phone and handed it to Tony, who posed with her and smiled as he snapped the picture. Sharon took her phone back and smiled. “That’s so cute. They’ll love it.” She sent the picture and started walking down the path. “So, seriously, what did you do to piss off Steve so much? He was perfectly fine earlier!”

“I just bring out the worst in him. Remember when I suggested he was gay?”

“No, you didn’t suggest he was gay. You straight-up asked him who between him and Bucky was on top.”

“Okay, but no two people are that close without screwing!”

“Now you know how it felt to be Steve when he suggested that we were together back in the cabin.”

“There’s a huge difference there! He was single when it happened! I’m dating Pepper!”

“Let’s just forget about it. You’ll both get over yourselves sometime. Maybe tonight will be the night when you two can get along for ten minutes without being at each other’s throats,” Sharon said.

“Hah. As if,” Tony said. They reached a gate with an electric lock. Tony tried unlocking it but the light remained red. “Well, shit.”

“Didn’t Thor mention something about a generator?” Sharon asked.

“Well then, have no fear, I’m an engineer!” Tony headed over to where he spotted the generator as Sharon shouted to him about how shitty his jokes were. He turned a knob and pulled a string that felt very similar to starting an old lawnmower, then Sharon shouted that she had opened the gate. Beyond it, the path was lit every five yards. They headed back on the path.

“Whoa,” Sharon said when she saw a piece of police tape tied around a tree.

“Guess they didn’t clean this up after they closed the search,” Tony remarked.

“That’s super fucking eerie.”

Tony felt uneasy as he and Sharon continued walking. “Hey, Share, what do you remember about that night?” he asked.

“I remember we all came up with some stupid half-baked prank that probably got Loki and Angela killed,” Sharon answered.

“We didn’t get them killed… did we?” Tony asked.

“I don’t know. I’d rather not know. I mean, what we did was so mean! He really did have a huge crush on you, and he looked so hurt when he caught on. Imagine being humiliated that badly.”

“I know, I know. I still feel like shit about it. And Clint – you’ve seen him when we bring them up. He thinks it’s all his fault.” Tony stopped Sharon and looked her in the eye. “Are we horrible people?”

Sharon opened and closed her mouth before saying, “Horrible would be ignoring Thor at a time when he shouldn’t be and doesn’t want to be alone. We’re at least trying to atone. I guess it should count for something in some people’s books.”

There was a loud screech in the distance. It sounded strikingly close to someone screaming, like Sharon is Tony were to put a name to the voice. Except that wasn’t Sharon, because he was still holding on to her, and she was looking around to find the source of the voice too.

“Must be a bird or something,” he said.

“Let’s keep on walking,” Sharon suggested. She pulled away and kept on going forward. “I think it’s another five minutes away if we don’t stop, then we should – _AHH!_ ” Sharon had leaned against a piece of wood with one hand, and it gave out under her, and she fell forward into the mines Thor’s mother had warned them ceaselessly about last year.

“Sharon!” Tony shouted, running forward. “Holy shit, Sharon, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine!” she shouted up. Tony could see her about ten feet ago. She stood up and showed that she was fine. “I still have all of my limbs.”

“That’s a relief,” he said. Tony hopped on down and saw that a mine cart was blocking the path. They pushed it out of the way and walked past it. “Guess that’s what Mrs. Olson was always worried about.”

“I can see why. That hurt like a bitch,” Sharon said. Another cart came rolling down, and they both held out their arms to stop it. “Weird.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Tony said. The falling debris that followed made them pick up the pace. Sharon took out her flashlight so they could see better. Once they made it out, she handed it to Tony and pointed out the telescope. She looked through it for a few seconds before pulling away.

“I think I just saw someone at the cabin,” she said.

“What, like Thor?”

“No. I don’t know who it was.”

Tony looked through as well. He saw a flash of something and tried to find it again, but it wasn’t there. He assumed it was just part of his imagination and turned to Sharon asking, “Have you been drinking your dad’s special egg nog or something?”

Sharon laughed uneasily. “Yeah, I guess.”

As Sharon started walking the path again, Tony noticed the sign next to the telescope about the wild animals on the mountain. Wolves, bears, and elk were listed on it. “Hey, Share, don’t walk too far ahead,” he said as he followed her.

“Why?”

“Just don’t want you to get mauled by a bear.”

“How about we go find one and hug it?”

“Okay, crazy. And I’ll go pet some wolves while you do that.”

“Aw, but wolves are so cute! Didn’t your cousin almost get a pet wolf?”

“Morgan wants everything, the egomaniac. He wanted a wildcat not even a week later!”

“Oh, the horrible burden of being rich.” Suddenly, a bird flew out of nowhere, making Tony scream and wave his arms in the air. Sharon was bending over as she laughed, a few snorts escaping too. “It came out of nowhere!”

“Your face!” Sharon cackled.

“Hey, it could’ve scratched me!”

“Aw, I’m sorry that you’re so easy to scare.”

“Oh, grow up, Sharon!”

Sharon climbed atop a fallen tree in the path and kept one hand behind her back. “Hey, Tony, there’s something on your face.” Before Tony could ask if it was a scratch from the bird, a snowball hit his cheek. Sharon grinned and jumped over the tree.

“Oh, you’re gonna get it, you little–”

Tony dropped the snow in his hand as he heard Sharon screaming from the other side of the tree.

* * *

 

**CABIN BATHROOM. 10:44 PM.**

All Steve wanted was a bath to help himself calm down. He always found bathing to be quite therapeutic whenever he was stressed or angry. Also, he smelled from having gone to the gym today, and he wanted to not smell like sweaty armpits all night. However, there was no hot water coming out of the faucet. Or any water, for that matter. Steve rolled his eyes and headed downstairs to complain to Thor, who was telling Pietro and Wanda to look for something in the basement. The twins passed him as Steve walked over to Thor.

“Hey, so there’s no hot water at all,” he said.

“Well, it’s been shut off most likely. No one has used it in a year. We need to go to the boiler room downstairs and turn it on,” Thor said. “Come, follow me.” He motioned for Steve to follow, and they went down to the basement.

“You know, Steve, I’m glad that everyone could come up here to the cabin this year,” Thor said as they walked downstairs. “Especially you. You were always so polite to my siblings, even if you were not so close.

“We’re all here to support you, Thor. It must be hard, I’m sure, and you come first in this,” Steve replied.

“Yeah,” Thor said absently as he located the boiler. As he began messing around with it, Steve wandered around the basement. He found a baseball bat leaning against the wall and picked it up.

“Snow isn’t really the best weather for baseball, don’t you think?” Steve teased as he showed the bat to Thor.

“Oh, that’s for the summer. We used to always play baseball, me, my parents, and…” Thor’s smile fell for a moment, but it came back just as quick. “Angela was always the best hitter, if you can believe it. She had such precision in her swings.” Thor took the bat and set it aside. “Hold this flashlight up while I get the boiler fired up.” As Thor did his thing, Steve heard a sound. It sounded too steady to be normal.

“Did you hear that?” he asked.

“Uh, Steve? I need the light,” Thor said.

“Oh. Right.” Steve held the light for Thor, then turned on the water pressure as per his friend’s instructions, and gave him a high-five as the hot water was turned on. Finally, time for a bath.

The noise came back, and Steve looked around. “Seriously, you can hear that, right?” he asked.

“Is a little noise really that terrifying to you, Steve? It’s a hold house that has been used only once this year. Do not tell me you frighten that easily,” Thor teased.

“I’m not scared,” Steve insisted. “I’m just gonna investigate, in case there is something.” Steve moved around Thor and flashed the light around, looking for another wolverine cub or a masked murderer. He wished it was the former as a figure in a black cloak and mask jumped out from around the corner. Steve immediately turned and ran, and Thor did the same. Steve knocked over random objects to try and trip the possible murderer, but didn’t look to see if it was working. They reached the basement door but Thor couldn’t open it.

“Why is it locked?” Steve demanded.

“I don’t know! Give me a moment!” Thor answered.

“We don’t have a moment!” Steve turned to see the figure had neared and was walking up the stairs. It waved its arms and moaning.  Steve’s eyebrows furrowed when he noticed something familiar in the voice. “What?” he asked. Now the figure laughed and pulled off the mask, revealing Pietro and his shit-eating grin. “What the hell?”

“Oh, man, that was too good!” Pietro laughed. He high-fived a now-laughing Thor.

“Were you in on this?” Steve demanded, shoving Thor.

“No, but I wish I was. That was a great jest,” Thor said. Steve rolled his eyes and pushed the basement door open, which was now unlocked. Thor and Pietro followed, both telling Steve it was just a joke and Steve insisting he wasn’t scared.

“What the hell are you wearing?” Wanda asked as she waited upstairs. How she made it up before Pietro started his shenanigans was beyond Steve.

“I found it downstairs. Pretty cool, eh?” he asked.

“Whatever. Did you get the spirit board?” She grinned as Pietro pulled out an Ouija Board box from his sleeve.

“You know what? I had enough spooking for one night. I’ll be upstairs getting a bath and not summoning spirits,” Steve announced. “Oh, and watch out for that Thor. He’s a schemer.”

* * *

 

**OUTSIDE THE CABIN. 10:51 PM.**

“So where did you stick your bag anyway?” Bruce asked.

“It’s in the foyer closet. It was the fastest place to hide it. Good tactic, right?” Natasha answered.

“You made a big enough deal out of it anyway. What’s in there that would be important enough for you to look for?”

“Some things for tonight.” Natasha winked at him. They walked upon a picnic table they’d passed on the way here. They cleared off some snow so they could sit. Bruce sat on one of the benches, and Natasha sat next to him with her butt on the table and her feet on the bench. “So, how was Thor acting strange with you earlier?”

“He was talking about how the two of us should get it on tonight, and how you looked attractive, and if I didn’t do it first someone else would seize the opportunity. I mean, it sounded like a pretty Thor thing to say with his foot-in-mouth syndrome, but to be suggesting that we do it tonight? I mean, shouldn’t he be too busy mourning to ask about our sex life?”

“Him asking us to come up here to begin with is strange enough,” Natasha said. “There’s no way there isn’t some sort of ulterior motive behind it. It’s a snowball’s chance in hell that he’s already forgiven and forgotten.”

“So how do you want to approach this?”

“We have about thirty minutes of searching we can do before someone comes looking for us. At the lease we’ll be able to radio authorities to come up here.”

“In a blizzard?”

“It’s better than calling one of our friends. We don’t need them freaking out about anything.”

There was a scream in the distance. Both Bruce and Natasha whipped their heads in that direction. Neither could place who or what that sounded like.

“Maybe that was an animal,” Natasha said.

“I’d be terrified of what animal could make such a human sound,” Bruce said.

“We need to move now.” Natasha hopped off the bench and started leading her and Bruce to the radio tower when the smell of something rancid caught her attention. She looked to her left and saw a pig’s head sitting on a stake, with a bloody note reading _WELCOME BACK._ She looked over at Bruce.

“Can we head back to the cabin? We’ll be safer there,” Bruce suggested.

“We can always call from the house phone,” Natasha agreed. They quickly turned themselves around and headed back, the snow starting to pick up as they reversed their trek.


	4. Chapter 3

**CABIN DINING ROOM. 11:00 PM. 8 HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

Wanda felt uneasy about toying around with the Ouija board. When she was younger, her aunt Ruth showed her one and used it to talk to their past relatives. The pointer spelled out stories about their relatives placed in camps in Germany, which Aunt Ruth had said aloud to her. Since she wasn’t told about the Holocaust yet, which her parents had later said they’d wanted to wait until they thought she and Pietro were mature enough, she couldn’t fall asleep all night, and told her parents the truth. Aunt Ruth wasn’t allowed to babysit her again for quite some time.

Now, she watched Pietro and Thor unbox the board with guarded concern. They both looked thrilled, like this was a toy not to be taken with heavy care. Anyone could undo a broken doll and buy a new one. No one could undo the horrors of contacting the dead.

“I elect Wanda as the leader of our séance,” Thor suggested.

“Me? Why?” Wanda asked.

“I believe the spirits would be more comfortable talking to the prettiest girl in the room.”

Wanda rolled her eyes. She was the only girl in the cabin. “Fine,” she said. She sat up straighter, and everyone placed their pointer fingers on the pointer. “What do I ask?”

“Oh, great spirits, can you please give me the answers to my midterms?” Pietro asked.

“I would advise you take this seriously,” Thor scolded. “The spirits will treat us harshly if we don’t.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know, big guy. Come on, Wanda. Ask them something.”

Wanda inhaled and exhaled slowly, keeping her lips pursed after the air left her. “Is anyone there?” The pointed began moving, hovering towards the H. “Whoa!”

“Is this you, Pietro?” Thor asked.

“No, man, I promise. This is freaky,” Pietro said, with a smile. Wanda watched as the pointer moved around the board.

H-E-L-P.

“Help?” she said. “Help with what?”

“Maybe my midterm–”

“Shut it, Pietro!” Wanda snapped. She took a deep breath. “Who are we speaking to?”

The pointer moved again. S-I-B-L-I-N-G.

“Sibling?” Wanda looked up at Thor, who was now tense. She gulped. Though they all had siblings, Lorna was home and safe. “Thor, if you want, we can stop.”

He shook his head. “I can do this. Ask them who it is.”

Wanda nodded slowly. “…Loki? Is this you?” Her breath hitched as the pointer flew to the YES. “Yes?!”

“Okay, whoever is screwing around with us can stop now,” Pietro said, the humor completely gone now.

“What happened to you Loki?” she asked. The pointer moved. B-E-T-R-A-Y-E-D. Wanda felt herself tearing up. Oh, god, what had they done? “Loki, if you can hear me, please know that we are _so_ sorry for what happened. We didn’t mean for things to go this far.”

“Ye-yeah, what she said!” Pietro added.

“Loki, who killed you?” The pointer was on the move. L-I-B.

“Library, does that mean library?” Pietro asked.

“I don’t know!” Wanda cried. Thor was starting to break into a sweat.

P-R-O-O-F.

“Proof in the library? Do we need to look there to help you, Loki?” Pietro nearly shouted. The pointer flew off the table, making everyone jump back.

Thor stood and glared at the twins. “If this is some horrible version of a prank that you two are playing–”

“Neither of us did this, I swear!” Wanda insisted. Thor’s glare didn’t waver, and he turned and left the room. Pietro and Wanda looked at the other, then at the board. Neither spoke about it. Both jumped when they heard one of the doors slam shut.

* * *

 

**PATH TO THE GUEST CABIN. 11:22 PM.**

“Sharon!” Tony shouted. He heard nothing, no wild animal or proof of Sharon being okay. He climbed over the tree as fast as he could, though he wasn’t in the best of shape, and was worn halfway over, muttering, “Fuck nuggets,” as he reached the top of the fallen tree. He rolled onto the ground and hurriedly walked forward. No Sharon anywhere. No feet, hooves, or paws in the snow to indicate where they could have gone. It was like Sharon was never here. Tony shined his flashlight around trying to look for her. He was beyond worried. How was he going to explain this to anyone? Maybe he should–

“A-ha!”

“ _AAAHHHHH!_ ”

And there was Sharon out of the blue, holding up a beheaded animal, and now laughing in his face as he recovered from the heart attack she just gave him. “Sharon, what the fucking fuck was that?” he snapped.

“Oh, my god, your face!” Sharon was laughing so hard that she fell to her knees. “You have to see this!”

“No, Sharon!”

“No, but look at your face!”

“This isn’t funny!”

“Tony, I swear–”

“You recorded me?” Tony watched the video of himself ten seconds go, having the blue scared out of his jeans, and Sharon began laughing all over again. He shoved her in annoyance.

“Aw, come on, Tony! I promise, I won’t put it online,” Sharon teased.

“Delete it,” he said.

“I will! …After I show everyone I know!”

“What? Sharon!” Tony began chasing her down the path, the weight of his bag slowing him down, as Sharon ran on ahead, still laughing all the way. “If I admit you got me, will you stop making fun of me?”

“Fine. I’m sorry that I bruised your ego,” Sharon said.

“Thank you. Now can we get to the cabin already? I’m freezing my ass off.”

There was a noise not too far away. It sounded too loud to be a person – well, scratch that, because Thor was a loud person. But it couldn’t be Thor. Sharon stopped and watched as Tony made a snowball and hit a tree near the sound. They screamed and fell back as an elk leaped out from the trees and ran across the path. They helped each other up and agreed to hurry on to the cabin already.

“It’s not this dingy thing, right?” Sharon asked as they passed a shack on the path.

“If it is, I’m punching Thor,” Tony said. “It’s a few minutes this way, I promise.”

Another minute closer to the cabin and they heard a pained snort. Sharon spotted it first – the elk from before, with large gashes on its neck. It panted pathetically as it bled out on a log. Sharon crouched toward it, and Tony tried to hold his breath. It smelled horrible.

“Aw, the poor thing,” Sharon cooed.

“Hey there, buddy. It’ll be all over soon,” Tony comforted, petting its side.

“It’s in so much pain.”

“Well, what do you want me to do about it?”

“I don’t know? Take it out of its misery, maybe?”

Before Tony could tell Sharon that she could do it herself because that sounded morbid, the elk was yanked away from them – _hard_. Sharon and Tony screamed and began running down the path, Sharon mostly pulling Tony along. She leapt over a gap in a bridge and had to yell at Tony to do the same. They didn’t dare look behind them as they took the path. The cabin was much closer than they’d thought (thankfully), and they picked up the pace. Sharon tripped on the porch, and Tony helped her up. He unlocked the door and shoved them both in, before slamming the door shut. They both fell to the ground, panting heavily, Tony’s having more whines in it.

“Was that a bear?” Sharon asked.

“I have no fucking idea what that was, but a bear makes sense,” Tony said. He stood up and shucked off his bag. “Holy shitballs, that was horrifying.”

“Never again.”

“Agreed.”

Now that they both had a chance to calm down after running for their lives, the coldness of the guest cabin settled in fast, and both were shivering. “Alright, here’s the game plan. I’ll start the fire, and you check out the place. Maybe find food or blankets or something while you’re at it,” Sharon instructed.

“Got it. Scope the place, find some grub. Cool,” Tony relayed. Sharon started searching for matches and lighters while Tony went further into the cabin.

The bedroom came up on his right. The bed wasn’t made, and the fact that there was just the one bed didn’t seem promising. Chances were he was getting the couch tonight. Damn. He went into the bathroom to see there was at least a shower for him. He moved the curtain back to see if there was shampoo and soap, but the curtain came off and tangled around him, making him scream and fight to push it off. Thankfully, Sharon didn’t see any of that. He didn’t need anything else for her to hold over his head.

He wandered back into the bedroom to notice a book sitting on the dresser. _Holy shit, it’s the_ Kama Sutra. Tony grinned as he opened it up. He wondered who in Thor’s family owned a sex book. Maybe they wouldn’t miss it if he happened to slip it into his bag.

“Oh, shit!” Sharon shouted from the other room. Tony put down the dirty book and walked into the main room to see Sharon looking in the couch. “Damn it!”

“What’s wrong, Share-bear?” he asked.

“I lost my freaking phone! I probably dropped it when we were running from that bear! Shit!” Sharon stood up and stomped her foot. “That’s my fourth one!”

“I’ll get a new one for you. Don’t worry about it.”

“It’s the fact that I have to explain having lost another phone to my parents that annoys me.”

“Well, you have an excuse. A bear was chasing us, unless you wanna fight it to get your phone – oh, hey, look!” Tony walked over to the front door and pulled a rifle off the rack hanging next to it. He pointed it toward Sharon and grinned. “Pretty cool, eh?”

“Is the safety off?” Sharon asked.

“Yeah it is. What, you think I suddenly forgot how to wield one of these bad boys?” Tony put the gun back. “Man, between this and the sex book, I wonder who always came up here.”

“Probably the same person with the homemade shooting range at the base of the mountain.”

In the other room, something broke. Something made of glass, though Tony wasn’t sure what, since he hadn’t seen anything glass in the rooms. He wandered back into the bedroom to see nothing. Then he inched toward the bathroom, and the sudden chill made him look to the now-broken window. He looked down to see the shards of glass and Sharon’s phone, replaying the video of him being scared.

“What was that?” Sharon asked.

“Um, it’s your phone,” Tony said, unsure of how it was her phone.

“Are you freaking kidding me? How? Did one of the guys follow us?” Sharon asked.

“I don’t know. But I doubt it with a bear outside,” Tony said.

Sharon huffed and stormed out of the room. Tony followed her to see her wiping the moisture off the window on the front door, squinting her eyes and looking for the culprit who threw the phone. There was no one, by the looks of it. She turned around and was about to speak when _something_ grey and thin broke through the window and latched onto Sharon’s head, pulling her out the window. She screamed and squirmed, trying to fight it off, but lost in the end, and was pulled all the way through, while Tony watched in horror.

* * *

 

**CABIN DINING ROOM. 11:11 PM.**

Not long after Thor stormed off, Wanda got up to pick the pointer off the floor and put the game back in its box. Pietro stared off into space while she did so. Then she went to the kitchen to find them some food, since it had been quite a few hours, and she knew that if anyone was going to get sick first from not eating, it would be Steve – wherever he was. Bathing, if she remembered correctly, meaning he should be left undisturbed for the moment.

Huh. Weird. The cabinets were empty. As were the pantry and refrigerator. She thought Thor would have restocked these before they came up. They were supposed to be here for a few days. Why would there be no food?

“Did you bring anything to eat with you?” Wanda asked as she wandered back into the dining room.

“No. Why?” Pietro replied.

“There’s nothing in the kitchen.”

“Are you sure?”

“Are you really asking me that? Of course I’m sure. The kitchen is bare.”

“Maybe that’s what’s in the library.”

“Pietro–”

“I’m being serious.” Pietro picked up the box and waved it in the air. “What if it really was Angela and Loki trying to contact us and tell us that something is wrong? Shouldn’t we listen to them?”

Wanda hesitated. When the pointer was moving across the table, it really did feel like an outside force was controlling it. And Pietro not only wasn’t that insensitive, but would surely have admitted that he had been the one to move it by now. “Are you suggesting we look?” she asked.

“It’s the least we can do. If they’re trying to protect us after what we did, then I guess it must be serious,” Pietro said.

“You mean what you guys did. You’re the one who was recording the video,” Wanda accused.

“Two things. One, it wasn’t my phone. And two, you were a bystander, and they can be just as guilty too, you know!” Pietro shot back.

Wanda grabbed flashlight off a side table and shook it at her brother. “It won’t do us any good to fight. Let’s see what they wanted us to find.” She turned it on and thanked her father for insisting they’d need a flashlight for the trip.

Pietro stood and followed her as they walked through the dining room into the den. It was still empty. No sounds indicating anyone else was here. Steve and Thor were upstairs, in the bathroom and master bedroom respectively. Natasha and Bruce were still looking for Natasha’s bag. Sharon and Tony were at the guest cabin doing whatever Sharon and Tony do. They moved toward the hallway, Wanda pausing when she noticed a light coming from the basement. Didn’t Thor warn them yesterday that the electricity was acting up?

“I don’t know where the library even is in this house. Loki was the only one who used it,” Pietro said.

“Well it’s a good thing he was the one we were speaking to, now isn’t it?” Wanda replied. She noticed one of the bookshelves and ran her fingers against the polished wood.

Books resting at her eye-level suddenly flew off the shelf. Wanda and Pietro shielded themselves as the novels tumbled to the ground. Once they were certain they wouldn’t get a black eye from a book spine, they looked again to see a mysterious button behind where the books were. Against better judgment, Wanda reached forward and pressed the button.

* * *

 

**CABIN HALLWAY. 11:17 PM.**

Pietro watched as the door pushed itself open, his and Wanda’s breaths held tight. They exhaled when nothing scary jumped out.

“This is like a movie,” Wanda said.

“I’d hate to be in this movie,” Pietro replied. He motioned at the opening. “Ladies first.”

“Oh, so _now_ you don’t boast about being twelve minutes older?” Wanda asked. She shoved the flashlight into Pietro’s hand. “You first, hot shot.”

Pietro rolled his eyes and moved into the space. No serial killers or axe murderers were hiding inside, so that was a good start. There was a brick wall to the right and a small open space to his left, with a desk sitting against the back wall. He noticed a photograph on it and picked it up. It was of Loki and Angela not too long before the accident. They were both smiling for whoever snapped the picture. He then flipped it over and nearly dropped it.

“What is it?” Wanda asked. She stepped into the space and grabbed the picture before Pietro could stop her. Her face fell as she read the note scribbled onto the back. “Someone threatened the Olsons? Who would do such a thing?”

“Apparently, someone with a sixteen-year vendetta against them,” Pietro answered. He took the picture back and put it down on the desk. “Clearly they pissed someone off and if taking out the family one-by-one.”

“Do you think they killed Angela and Loki?”

“I don’t want to wait around to figure it out. Let’s get out of here and warn the others. I mean, who knows where this person is. They could be in the house!” Pietro shoved Wanda into the hall and pulled the secret door shut. Wanda put the books back on the shelf, as if that solved anything.

Then there was a scream. It sounded like it came from the kitchen. It also sounded like…

“Thor!” Wanda cried. She ran across the house and opened the now-shut doors (when were they shut? Pietro could’ve sworn they weren’t a few minutes ago…) before peering her head inside. “Thor? Are you okay?”

Wanda was pulled through and the door was slammed shut.

“Wanda! No!” Pietro ran to the door and tried to open it. Someone had locked it just as quick. Pietro braced himself and slammed his shoulder against the door once. Twice. Thrice was the charm, and he burst through to see his sister unconscious on the floor. When he looked up from her, there was a figure in a hideous mask, and a fist coming right at his face.


	5. Chapter 4

**GUEST CABIN. 11:59 PM. SEVEN HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

“Sharon!” Tony screamed.

Holy shit. What the fuck did he just see?

“Oh, shit! Oh fucking fuck, what the fuck was that! Fuck! Sharon!”

Tony took a second to realize that just standing there and swearing like a soldier was getting him nowhere, and definitely wasn’t helping Sharon. He grabbed the gun he’d been screwing with and ran out the window. There was a slight path of where Sharon was, but it wasn’t much to go off of. He jumped across a running river (a river? Running with water and not frozen during the snow? Damn it, he could deal with this scientific anomaly later!) and paused at a cliff. He held up the gun and looked through the scope, trying to find a hint of something.

There was Sharon, trying to crawl away from whatever grabbed her, looking over her shoulder and trying to move faster before being yanked out of Tony’s sight.

“I’m coming, Sharon!” he cried. He put the rifle sling around him and decided to jump down the cliff. He just barely grabbed the branch before crashing hard on the ground. He steadied himself and landed semi-gently before taking off in the direction of Sharon. He jumped over and ducked under random branches the best he could, despite the snowflakes getting in his eyes and starting to blind him.

Of course, then there was a giant hole where the ground should have been. “Fuck,” he said. He looked at his two options. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck…” He leapt to a small ledge and used the momentum to the other side of the hole without dying – somehow. Then he slid down another path, barely catching on to the ledge before hitting a large drop. The rifle still stayed strapped around his chest.

He didn’t hear Sharon. Why couldn’t he hear Sharon?

Tony dropped down onto a wooden walkway below him, then from that walkway into the mines below.

“ _Tony!_ ”

“Sharon!” Tony shouted. He started running toward the shabby tower he heard her coming from.

“Tony! Help me!”

“I’m coming, Sharon!” The door to the tower slammed shut, and Tony pulled it open, expecting Sharon and her kidnapper to be standing on the other side. Naturally, they weren’t.

Sharon’s screams and cries rang out, and Tony prayed that he would find her in time. He looked around to find some sort of hint, and chose to follow the stairs that led down. Her cries grew louder as he came closer, and when they suddenly stopped, Tony sprinted through the mines and almost tripped over the tracks trying to get to her.

He found Sharon lying on top an elevator, her jacket reduced to a torn sleeve, and looking pretty dead to Tony, who screamed when he saw her.

“Sharon! No!” He kneeled by her and put the rifle down next to him. He gasped when Sharon coughed and shook.

“Tony,” she said hoarsely. Another cough. “Help me…”

Tony shrugged off his coat and had just draped it over her when the elevator jolted, then dropped. He stood and backed away as equipment and metal from above came down with elevator. He screamed Sharon’s name. Nothing replied.

There was no way she survived that. Who knew how far that drop was, on top of everything else that fell with it. He could only imagine how wrecked her body was. How was he going to explain this to her parents? To Aunt Peggy? To their friends back at the cabin? What the fuck was even happening?

Tony heard something from above and looked up. He quickly grabbed his gun and aimed at a head above him, just barely hitting it. It ran away with a shriek. Tony threw the sling around him again and ran up the metal walkway after the fuckface that killed Sharon. He jumped over a missing panel in the flooring and grabbed his gun to find that asshole through the scope. It was gone. The gun was slung again, and he started climbing up the grated wall surrounding what was once where the elevator was. He used the longer metal poles as leverage for his feet as he inched his way up. At the top, he turned himself around and jumped over to another walkway.

There they were. A figure. It had to be the person who killed Sharon. No way in hell it wasn’t. Tony grabbed the rifle and looked through the scope, his aim right on the stranger’s head.

The gun was jammed. Of course it was. And the person got away before Tony could unjam it. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck. The gun was thrown to the ground, now that it was completely useless. Tony followed the stranger through the mines, and they jumped out an opening a few seconds later. He jumped out the opening after him and stopped when he remembered that now he was jacket-less and standing in a snowstorm in a tank top and jeans. He shivered but forced himself to follow the footsteps of the stranger.

He shielded his eyes against the snow and looked up as he saw the lights of a large building in the distance.

* * *

 

**CABIN KITCHEN. 12:41 AM.**

Pietro woke up with a dull ringing in his ears. He grunted and felt around the back of his head. No blood. The front was clean too, but his forehead was starting to form what felt like a rather large bruise. Man, that was going to look horrible in a few hours. Maybe he could brush his hair over it. Wanda always had little hair things she could – Wanda! She’d been taken! Pietro pushed himself onto his feet and looked around. No sign of his sister, or of any struggle. Not even Thor, who he remembered shouting before Wanda was taken.

Pietro looked all around the kitchen, even in the fridge, in case this person had some creepy way of disposing of bodies (he sure hoped not). There was nothing. Literally. Just empty cabinets. No sister. No Thor. No food. That was a fucking waste of time.

He opened the kitchen door and almost vomited when he saw the blood splattered on the wall. Whose blood was that? Why was it splattered here? He looked down the hall and saw one of the doors open. If he remembered correctly, that led to the shed. Was Wanda in the shed? Pietro stuffed one hand in his pocket and pushed the door open with the other. The snow had slowed down a bit, but not well enough for him to run. He was reduced to a quick march as he made his way from the cabin to the shed. He hoped his sister was there. He didn’t know what he would do if she wasn’t.

“Thor! Wake up! Pietro! Pietro, come here!” he heard Wanda crying. Pietro forced himself to go as fast as he could to reach the shed. He threw himself against the door to open it.

Once inside, he found no sign of Wanda. He could hear her sobs though, and he tried navigating himself around in the dark, occasionally bumping into metal objects hanging from the ceiling. It wasn’t until he knocked into one so hard that he swore and nearly fell over when she heard him.

“Pietro?”

“Wanda! Where are you?”

“I don’t know!”

“Hold on! I’m coming for you!”

“Pietro, hurry!”

Pietro wanted to hurry up, but he was navigating completely in the dark. He put his hands against the wall and kept on feeling around for a door or his sister. It only turned into a perpendicular metal fence. Then a light on the other side of fence turned on. There was Wanda and Thor, both hanging with their arms tied above them, to a large wooden plank. A sawblade sat in front of Pietro. Wanda began crying harder as Thor seemed to just wake up.

“Pietro, are you there?” Wanda asked.

“I’m here! I’m going to get you out of here, I promise!” Pietro said.

**HELLO, AND THANK YOU ALL FOR JOINING ME.**

Pietro jumped at the voice. Wanda yelled at Thor, who became a little more aware of his surroundings and looked completely confused.

**TONIGHT, WE’RE GOING TO CONDUCT A LITTLE EXPERIMENT.**

Wanda began shaking her arms and kicking her legs, while Thor just shook his arms. Both began yelling over the voice, presumably at Pietro, who wasn’t focused on them anymore. He tried opening a door in the fence, which didn’t budge.

**A SORT OF TEST.**

Pietro could barely make out what Thor was saying. He was mostly shouting at the voice. That cruel, heartless, psychotic voice.

**NOW FOR THIS EXPERIMENT, WE’LL NEED THE COOPERATION OF OUR TWO TEST SUBJECTS…**

Wanda’s crying grew louder. Pietro gave up on the door.

**…THOR AND WANDA.**

“What?” Wanda asked. Pietro’s heart stopped. He backed away from the door and looked at the sawblade. He then looked at his sister a friend. Then the sawblade in relation to them. And the tracks leading up to both of them.

Holy shit.

**BUT WE’RE GOING TO NEED ONE MORE BRAVE PARTICIPANT TO HELP DECIDE…**

No no no no no. Pietro did _not_ want to be the brave participant. He didn’t want to participate at all. He wanted his sister to be safe from this sick game.

**…WHICH SUBJECT WILL LIVE, AND WHICH WILL DIE.**

There it was. The catch Pietro knew was there. Wanda’s crying and shaking worsened as she pled to Pietro. Thor shouted at the maniac come more. He knew there was no reason to negotiate with Pietro over this. If one of them had to die, he knew who the more obvious choice was.

**PLEASE. PLEASE, PLEASE, EVERYONE CALM DOWN. IT’S ALL VERY SIMPLE.**

How could they stay calm? Thor swung from where he was hanging.

**PIETRO, YOU WILL FIND A LEVER PLACED DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOU.**

Pietro looked and saw the lever. To the left of it was a picture of Wanda. To the right, a picture of Thor. He didn’t want to know how this psycho had a picture of either of them.

**ALL YOU HAVE TO DO… IS CHOOSE WHO YOU WILL SAVE.**

The sawblade turned itself on, spinning faster and faster until the entire thing shook violently in place. Pietro’s eyes widened. He ran his fingers through his hair. He couldn’t think straight.

“This will… everything will be okay. Let’s just think this over,” Thor said.

“Pietro, you can’t let me die!” Wanda cried.

“Just give me a second, alright!” Pietro snapped.

He looked at the lever. It wasn’t a question who he was going to save. Thor knew who he was going to save. He was damn sure the psycho knew who he was going to save. Wanda may be freaking out now, but she should know she was the safe one. It all came down to realizing that he was going to have to murder someone. If he didn’t choose…

“Pietro,” Thor called out, catching Pietro’s attention. He looked slightly fearful, but he could tell that he was a goner. “Please.”

Pietro shook his head. “I’m so sorry,” he said, his voice cracking on the last syllable, before pulling the lever so it hovered over Wanda’s picture.

**AH. I SEE. YOU HAVE CHOSEN TO SAVE WANDA.**

The track shifted at the divide, and the sawblade rolled forward. Thor screamed. Wanda shut her eyes and screamed as well. Pietro wanted to look away but couldn’t find it in himself to do so. Wanda, however, turned her head, and missed it as the saw cut through Thor’s torso. Blood splattered everywhere, soaking Wanda’s left side, as it went through. Thor’s screams didn’t last long as he succumbed to his death. His pelvis and legs fell to the floor, some of his intestines spilling onto the ground. Thor’s head hung limp.

“Don’t look, Wanda,” Pietro begged. The sawblade slowed itself down, but didn’t stop running.

“Why can’t I look? Please, tell me he’s okay, Pietro!” Wanda cried. She still kept her head turned and her eyes shut. The door opened itself and Pietro ran through. He helped Wanda down and immediately pulled her head to his chest so she couldn’t see.

“Please, don’t look, Wanda, I beg you,” he said.

“Why not? Is he okay?” Wanda turned to look, and howled when she saw Thor. Pietro forced her to look away and they ran out of the shed. Once outside, Pietro let go of Wanda and fell to his knees, vomiting onto the snow. Wanda saw the blood soaking her clothes and screamed.

“Oh, my god! Holy fuck!” Pietro looked to see Bruce and Natasha running forward. Bruce asked, “Are you guys okay? What happened?”

“I…” Pietro began.

“Whose blood is that?” Natasha asked. Wanda tried explaining but it was too incoherent through her sobs.

“It’s Thor’s,” Pietro said. “There was – there was this psycho, and he kidnapped them–”

“What psycho?”

“And I didn’t have a choice – he didn’t give me a choice–”

“Pietro, calm down–”

“I couldn’t kill my sister! What choice did I have?”

“Pietro!” Natasha snapped. Pietro stopped talking and looked up at her. “Is Thor okay?”

He shook his head.

“Where are the others?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay. Listen to me. I know that you’re both traumatized right now, but you need to pull yourselves together. Go find Steve and make sure he’s safe. Then call Tony and Sharon and make sure this person hasn’t found them yet. Then stay inside the cabin,” Natasha explained. “We’ll meet you back there, okay?”

“What about you guys?” Pietro asked.

“We’re going to call for help. Don’t worry about us. Just keep yourselves and the others safe. Do you think you can do that?”

Pietro looked at Wanda. She wasn’t crying anymore, but she was still shaken. He nodded at Natasha and Bruce and stood himself up. He wrapped his arms around his sister and walked her back to the cabin.

Now that he thought about it, he had no idea where the hell Steve was.


	6. Chapter 5

**OUTSIDE SANATORIUM. 1:03 AM. SIX HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

Tony stopped for two seconds with the intention of catching his breath, but his body decided now was the perfect time to cry. It only made sense for him to cry. He’d been so busy running after Sharon’s killer that it hadn’t fully hit him that she was gone. Dead. Fallen down an elevator shaft, plunging into darkness and utter silence. Their families were close, so they’d been raised together. She was family. She meant so much to him. She was _dead_. He found himself leaning against a stone wall with his hands covering his face, tears running freely and his sobs quieted so the murderer wouldn’t hear him. How was he going to tell her parents that she was gone? Their friends back at the cabin?

He forced himself to stop crying and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands before peering over the wall. There was the murderer, now flanked by two wolves, entering the front door of what Tony assumed was the sanatorium he heard about. When the door closed, Tony pulled himself on top of the wall with exhausted arms and braced himself before rolling over and dropping down to the other side. Once he felt balanced, he marched over the snow to the doors.

Tony walked inside and was a bit surprised to see how destroyed the place looked. Sure, he knew the sanatorium hadn’t been used in decades, but most foundations didn’t crumble like this one. Concrete chunks were scattered everywhere, there were deep burn marks on the floor, pillars were in ruins, and it smelled like rotten flesh. It would make sense for the killer to use this place as his hideout, but no man could destroy pillars like that. It made no sense. In fact, nothing that had happened tonight from the second Tony stepped on this mountain seemed to make sense. Just one oddity after another.

Did Thor know about this? I mean, his family owned part of the mountain, so they had to know, right? He made a mental note to ask about this later.

There was a door on the other side of the room that Tony approached slowly. Growls leaked through the small opening at his eye-level, and when he peered inside, there was the killer, throwing some kind of bone (animal? _Human?_ ) to the wolves. He then walked out of view with the two animals trailing him, the second having possession of the bone. Tony tried to open the door, but it was locked. A sign read, “SECURITY PASS REQUIRED”. Shit. Where would he get one of those? Another walk through the dark, moonlit room found him a doorway with a sign reading “ADMIN” above it. Bingo.

No, not a bingo, as it turned out. Just another destroyed room. He walked into the hall and went into another room. There was a sheet of paper with a patient’s information on it, as well as a note on the back reading that one of them tried to bite the writer of said note. Ew. Back into the hall it was. He heard wolves howling and rats scurrying. Double ew.

He descended down a staircase, feeling for each step in case one turned out to be missing (should’ve grabbed one of the lanterns from the guest cabin, he thought absently) and saw another door – one with a cage on the window. He looked inside and saw a crow pecking at a table, which flew away when Tony opened the door further. On the table laid a machete that was standing atop a piece of soured flesh. Tony grabbed the machete, figuring it made a great murder weapon, and hung it from his jeans. There. Now he was armed and semi-ready to face this piece of shit murderer.

He walked with more confidence as he continued exploring rooms, though the random rats and shadows of wolves did deter him when he spotted them. The rooms were all still empty and ruined, with nothing to offer him beyond disappointment. He made it to the end of the hall and saw a hand attached to something mechanic, waving from left to right.

“Whoa. Is this what he was feeding them?” he wondered aloud. As he stepped closer, he noticed that the hand looked a bit fake. He reached for the hand, and the second he got a hold of it, the hand snapped away, and his ring and pinkie fingers were caught in a bear trap. He screamed and stomped his foot, careful not to move his trapped fingers. He tried to free them without touching the claws, but it was clear they weren’t coming free any time soon.

Then he looked down at the machete. It was clear he had to use it, and it was also clear that what he was about to use it for was going to hurt like a motherfucker.

“Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” he said repeatedly as he grabbed the machete and held it to the ready. He continued swearing as he hesitated on the first and second swings. Then he decided to just say fuck it, and cut off this two fingers.

Oh, did that hurt worse than the bear trap. He waved his freed hand around and looked around for something to stop the bleeding. He spotted a medical kit and quickly grabbed the bandage roll, wrapping the two stumps where his fingers had just been tightly. He tied off the two ends of the bandage the best his could and sheathed his machete again on his pants. He looked at his three remaining fingers. Holy fuck, had tonight just gotten worse.

Alright. Focus, Tony. “Eenie… meanie… miney… mo… catch a tiger by the toe… if he… let him go… I don’t know what the fuck to go, okay,” he said. He looked around to figure out where to go next, grimacing when he looked over his two fingers.

He wandered around what looked like a hospital room. Well, _maybe_ a hospital room. A human-like head in a jar isn’t exactly a nice decoration. He then moved to a drawer in a cabinet that he opened and found a long tray with dried blood on it. Everything in this place was gross. He picked up the tag on the tray. A death tag. Apparently, something tore into this guy’s neck. And apparently this place was a morgue. He moved on to another drawer that didn’t have its handle yanked off. This one came with no body and a death certificate. According to the death certificate, some of this person’s internal organs were eaten by whoever attacked him. Tony figured it had to be the same guy who got to Sharon.

Third time was the charm, and there was a rotting body inside the third drawer he opened. A cloud of its scent hit him like a truck. A rat crawled out from its mouth. Oh, god, did Tony want to puke. Instead, he noticed the security card sticking out of the body’s pocket and grabbed it. He needed to find this murderer fast, before something else terrifying happened. He found a locked door for the card and stuck it in, quickly ripped it out, and let himself through the door.

He walked through and felt his way around the darkness. He went through the doorway and up the stairs on all fours, wincing whenever he put weight on his left hand. Halfway up, he heard a wolf barking and picked up the pace. Oh, shit, yeah, that was a wolf, and now he was sprinting and running himself into the walls like an idiot because he didn’t bring a light source. Once he reached the top of the stairs, Tony ran down the hall and turned corners wherever the little bits of light revealed sudden corners. Fortunately, there was a door that he slammed shut in time for the wolf to crash into it. He leaned against the door and let out a sigh of relief. At least a wolf was normal up here. Being chased by a wolf was the most normal thing to happen to him tonight.

There was a window on the wall to his left, and Tony looked out to see the main room. Looked just like the asylums he’d seen in video games. How uncomforting.

He wandered around the room and took another staircase (seriously, how many staircases were in this place?!) down and stopped at a hole where the rest of the stairs should be. He dropped down to the floor and found himself right back where he started. Fuck. Well, at least he had a way through the door. He put the security card in and opened the door. That was more like it.

“Oh, fuck!” Tony shouted as the wolf made yet another appearance and barked at him ferociously. He froze, hoping that would keep it away. The wolf stopped after a few seconds and walked away. Guess he wasn’t interesting enough to it.

He went to his right where he saw a bright light and found a jacket hanging on a gated window. He grinned and put it on, finally gaining some warmth. He looked into the small room and noticed a gun sitting on a wooden plank, propped up by cement blocks. There was also a floodlight further into a room, but the gun was more accessible. He pulled the block closest to him until the plank fell, and the gun slid right next to his hand. Perfect. Now he was armed and ready to shoot that murdering son of a bitch in the face.

Tony wandered around the room and found a chest sitting by the wall. He opened it and found a pile of bones, all bloodied and only a few with meat still on them. The wolf barked. Tony grabbed one of the bones and walked back over to where the wolf was standing, who growled until the bone was at its feet. It sniffed and looked back at Tony.

“Come here, I won’t hurt you,” Tony said as he crouched by the wolf. He held out his good hand. “You won’t bite me, right? Right, Wolfie?” Wolfie (jeez, he named the wolf like a kid names its stuff animals) let Tony pet his head – a personal success. Wolfie lied down and looked at Tony, who backed away and headed for the door on the other side of the room.

The door, of course, was locked, but if watching television had taught him anything, it was that shooting guns at padlocks opened doors. And television was right, because he shot that lock open and found himself on the other side looking for… well, he was sure that the murderer was long gone by now, so he didn’t know what exactly he was looking for. He was just looking. There wasn’t much for him to find anyway.

There was another gate door with a padlock on it, and after moving the barrel blocking it, Tony shot again. When he opened the door, he noticed a fire had started on the floor. Then he noticed the smell of oil. Fuck. The gunfire must have lit it. And there was barrels of gas or oil everywhere. He turned and ran just as they exploded. Double fuck.

* * *

 

**UPPER CABLE CAR STATION. 1:05 AM.**

“Fuck, the gate is locked!” Bruce said. The little light flashed red and stayed red no matter how many times he tried to force it open. Shit. No way to the other side without someone getting injured either. He sighed and walked with Natasha down to the cable car station.

“I can’t believe Thor’s dead,” she said.

“I can’t believe how he died.”

“No, I mean I really can’t believe it. After all this suspicious shit that’s been going on, he’s just dead? Just like that? It doesn’t make any sense…”

“They looked traumatized enough for me to believe it.” They walked up to the door, where an axe was now sticking out of it. Though Bruce was seriously concerned about how that axe got there, he still took it out. He felt safer, and hopefully Natasha did too. He tried opening the door, but it was stuck. He wasn’t surprised. He looked over to the cracked open window. Natasha saw him looking over there and followed.

“Bruce, I don’t think that’s the way through. Neither of us are small enough for that. Try breaking down the door,” she said.

“Are you sure? Because that looks plenty big enough for you,” Bruce said.

Natasha smirked. “As much as I know you’d love the view of pushing me through that window, you should break down that door with all that muscle.”

Bruce nodded. She wasn’t wrong – he would love the view of her ass. But breaking down the door looked like an easier feat, and it would give him the chance to show off to her. That had more benefits. He pulled back the axe and swung hard at the door. It broke open on the third hit.

“My big, strong man,” Natasha purred as she ran her fingers on Bruce’s shoulder.

“Yeah. That’s me.” He let Natasha go in first so he could give his arms a moment to feel less sore, then followed. The place had been ransacked and overturned. It definitely wasn’t this way earlier. Who would have had the time to do this? He looked to the far wall to see the word “DIE” painted in red. At least he thought it was paint. That pig’s head earlier told him it might not be.

“Oh, fucking hell! Look!” Natasha exclaimed. Bruce looked out the window to see the cable car hanging in place fifty yards from the station. Oh, fucking hell, indeed. They were even closer to becoming beyond trapped. He looked back to the wall and saw the map still sitting in place. The closest thing to the station was a fire tower, but there was not written path to get down the mountain. Shit.

“Do you see the key anywhere for the cable car?” Bruce asked.

“No! Shit!” Natasha picked up one of the filing cabinets and began looking through it.

“Maybe one of us can jump to the cable car?”

“We’d die if we tried.”

“Right. Well… then shit, I don’t know what to do. There’s nothing around here to help us.”

Natasha looked at Bruce, then walked over to the map right by him. “The fire tower should have a radio. We can call for help. Someone has to be listening on the other side,” she suggested.

“If that’s what you think we should do, then we’ll do it,” Bruce agreed. He looked at the map again and realized that the only way to get to the fire tower was to climb around the side of the cable car station. He walked out and waited for Natasha, who picked up on what he was doing and took the lead. They went down and around, and Natasha spotted something before he did and tried to reach it herself. Bruce smirked. She always had the problem of being the shortest in the group.

“What’s cookin’, good lookin’?” he teased as he kneeled down and put his hands together.

“Cute,” she said as she stepped onto his hands. She used the extra height to grab on to a ladder and yank it down. She stepped out of Bruce’s hand and onto the ladder. He descended after her, and they both pushed themselves as close to the wall as they could. Bruce forced himself not to look down as they inched on the thin walkway around the station. This was crazy. This was batshit insane. His plans were to have sex with his girlfriend, not to be risking his neck because they were trapped on a mountain with a psychopath.

He noticed a patch of ice before Natasha, whose foot went out and started to fall forward. Bruce quickly reached out and pulled her back. She crashed into their chest and they both tried to keep steady.

“Maybe I should take the lead,” he said.

“I’ll be fine,” she insisted. “Besides, if someone slips again, I’m much lighter.”

“You sure?”

“Positive. You can let go now. I won’t die.” Bruce hesitated but let Natasha go. She emphasized her step over the ice patch as she led again, and Bruce mimicked her movement. They went around the small turn and crab-walked to safety. Holy shit, was he relieved that was over.

“We need a Plan B,” Natasha said as they continued trekking.

“A Plan B for what?”

“In case things go wrong. Like if we can’t use the radio to call for help.”

“I don’t know what else we _could_ do. Our only other options are to sit in the lodge or climb down the mountain in a snowstorm.”

“I know that’s the case, and neither are desirable, but we’re going to have to choose. It comes down to which scenario we have a better chance of surviving.”

“Someone already died tonight, and the killer could be anywhere.”

Natasha stopped walking and turned around, causing Bruce to almost crash into her. “The dead person could be the killer, and it’s someone who knows this mountain better than we do. If they knew to set the cable car far enough out of our reach, then they know what else to do to keep us trapped or get us killed,” she said.

“Thor is our friend, though,” Bruce insisted.

“And we’re the ones who got his two favorite people killed. If someone killed your brother and sister, wouldn’t you do the same?”

Bruce rolled his eyes. “I can’t answer that. Neither of us have siblings.”

“What about me? What if someone did that to me? Would you try to get revenge?” she asked.

“I…”

“Exactly.” Natasha started walking again, and Bruce let the conversation drop. He didn’t want to think about Natasha being dead. After everything weird that’s been happening, that was turning into a possible future reality, and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Oh, god damn it,” Natasha said as they found themselves at the edge of a cliff. At their feet was a sign that read “DANGER: CLIFF”. Considering that it was laying on the ground, something told Bruce that someone didn’t heed its warning.

“Oh, fuck. Bruce…”

Bruce turned to see Natasha pointing at a herd of elk closing in on them around the cliff.

* * *

 

**CABIN BATHROOM. 1:11 PM.**

Steve always found classical music to be the most comforting thing in the world. He had a playlist on his phone of just classical songs, and always found himself getting lost in it when he began listening. Like right now, having been bathing for at least an hour. His entire body up to his neck was submerged in the water and pruning up, but he didn’t care. As long as the water was still hot, it didn’t bother him.

A gust of wind caught his attention. That was strange. He opened his eyes and noticed that the candles he had lit were just blown out, smoke rising in wisps from the wicks. He paused his music and took out his earbuds. There was no one else in the bathroom, was there? It looked empty. Still…

He stepped out of the tub and grabbed the long towel he had taken out. He quickly dried himself and wrapped the towel around his hips. It was rather long for a towel. Soft, too. He padded over to his clothes to see that they were gone. Oh, those pricks must have stolen them. What douchebags. He was going to give them a piece of his mind.

“Okay, very funny, guys! Look at Steve in a towel! Isn’t that just hilarious! Now give me my clothes back!” he hollered as he walked downstairs. No one was in the den. Dicks must be hiding somewhere. They were probably in the basement. “Hooray, you guys win! I’m getting freaked out now! Can I have my clothes back now? It’s freezing in here!” he shouted as he went down the stairs into the basement. Again, there was no one. But there had to be, right? Otherwise there wouldn’t be a shit ton of candles lit all over the staircase. He picked up a flashlight sitting on a table. “Where is everyone?” he wondered. He walked into the next room to see the cinema room set up for a film. But no one was there to watch it. “I’m getting sick of this, you guys! The jig is up! Give it up already!”

The door behind him slammed shut, and no, his scream was not as shrill as anyone who could have been there would say.

**HELLO, STEVEN.**

Who and what in the fresh hell was that? Steve looked around for the source of the voice. There was none.

**LOOKING FOR ME?**

Steve looked around again. Still nothing.

**I DON’T THINK YOU’LL HAVE MUCH LOOK BY LOOKING, STEVEN.**

“What the hell is this?” he asked no one. Or someone. He wasn’t quite sure if this was a prank or not anymore.

**YOU’RE ONLY GOING TO SEE WHAT I WANT YOU TO SEE.**

Steve looked over to the screen.

**AND I HAVE A LOT TO SHOW YOU.**

Numbers flashed across the screen from a supposedly empty reel.

**OPEN YOUR EYES.**

There was footage of Steve, in the bathtub he’d just been in not five minutes ago. How long had someone been filming him? How long was someone in there _watching him_? Fear filled him as he watched himself, blissfully unaware of what was about to unfold.

**HE’S QUITE BEAUTIFUL, ISN’T HE?**

Oh, fuck, please don’t let this person be some kind of pervert.

**A BEAUTIFUL BATHING BIRD…**

“What do you want?” Steve shouted. How long did this reel go on for?

**DO YOU THINK HE HAS ANY IDEA WHAT LIES AHEAD?**

He watched himself step out of the tub.

**DO YOU THINK THESE WERE THE LAST HAPPY MOMENTS OF THIS CREATURE’S LIFE?**

Oh, god, was he going to die?

“Why are you showing this to me?” he asked.

**WHY ARE YOU WATCHING?**

Fuck. This wasn’t pre-recorded. Whoever this was was right here, right now, and probably somewhere very close. Steve looked back at the screen to see the film switch to Thor, tied up and screaming.

“Thor!”

**HOW DOES IT MAKE YOU FEEL?**

Steve’s hand flew to his mouth as he watched one of his best friends get sawed in half. Thor was dead? Oh no, oh no, oh no. This guy had to have done it. Oh no, oh no, oh no.

“You… you sick fuck!” he shouted. “Why did you do this to him?”

**I’M GOING TO GIVE YOU TEN SECONDS…**

To what?

**NINE.**

Nine seconds to what?!

**EIGHT.**

Steve cowered back into the corner, still trying to figure out what was going on.

**SEVEN.**

“Please, no!” he cried.

The door slammed back open, and Steve screamed as a figure in a creepy mask entered the room carrying a tank. They uttered his name. He looked up and saw the vase. He chucked it at the figure and ran out of the room.

He burst through two doors and slammed the second one shut behind him. He looked at the bed and tried to figure where to go from there. He decided to leap over it, and the psycho opened the door just as he leaped. He ran down the stairs and skipped the last two after seeing one of them was broken, slamming into the wall and grabbing onto his towel. Fuck. He pushed himself toward the next set of stairs and kept running. He saw the boiler from earlier and thought for a split second that maybe it would be a good hiding spot, but decided to keep on running instead. He found himself at the next door.

“Are you kidding me? No handle?” he said. He looked back and saw the psycho approaching. Steve threw himself against the door. He burst through the door and slammed it shut, putting the lock in place so the psycho couldn’t follow him. He watched the mask come into view, duck down, then come back up holding up something familiar. Steve looked down. His towel had been lost in the battle, but he’d rather have his life than his modesty. He slammed the metal bar over the window to keep the psycho from unlocking the door. Despite having something between him and the psycho, he knew standing around was not going to keep him safe. It was only a matter of time before they found a way around.

Steve went up to the next door and found it locked. He threw himself against it and it gave immediately, causing him to fall onto his side. He felt his forehead for blood and picked up his flashlight before walking forward, stumbling a bit as he did. He saw a drop ahead, and a hallway to his left. He decided to take his chances and run down the hall.

Once he reached the doorway, the psycho popped out and grabbed the back of his head, forcing a mask over his face, and apologizing as the gas filled Steve’s head and slowly dragged him into unconsciousness.


	7. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact: When it comes to things like "Follow Person/Investigate", I do a coin toss. Ninety percent of the characters' decisions that are option-based are chosen by heads or tails.

**CLIFF. 2:03 AM. FIVE HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

Bruce looked behind him to see how close he was to the edge. About two steps, maybe, until he might possibly fall to his death. He looked back up at the herd of elk. They’d stopped closing in on them, but they weren’t backing down either. Then he looked at Natasha. She was still, but he could see the hint of fear in her eyes.

“We can get out of this,” he said.

“Are you sure?” Natasha asked. One of the elk scraped its hoof against the snow and snorted.

Bruce took Natasha’s hand and squeezed it. “Only one way to find out.”

They took each step cautiously, their eyes locked on the elk, only looking a few in the eye. The animals backed away as they neared, creating a path down the middle for them to walk through. It felt like they were in _The Lion King_ or something, except they might actually die.

One elk didn’t move and stepped closer, lowering its head and pointing its antlers at them. They paused and stared at in, waiting for it to strike. It raised its head again and thankfully let them pass. Once they’d crossed the elk, they dissipated, finding no reason to bother them anymore.

“Bruce, you can let go now,” Natasha said. Bruce looked at their hands. His knuckles were white. He let go of her and nodded.

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen again,” he said. Natasha smiled and knocked on the nearest tree. They both knew this probably wasn’t the last life-or-death situation for the night. Hell, this wasn’t even the first one of the night.

“Think Thor can communicate with nature and make the elk do such a thing?” Natasha asked as they continued walking through the forest. Bruce noted that started looking more exhausted.

“Do you?”

“At this point, I’m not sure who’s doing what.”

* * *

 

**FIRE TOWER. 2:21 AM.**

Natasha was surprised they made it to the tower. She had been beginning to doubt they would make it this far. Hell, she was still surprised Thor let them out of his sight. She glanced at Bruce, who also seemed stunned. Well, here goes nothing, she thought.

Lights quickly flashed on, nearly blinding them, and they quickly turned their heads and shielded their eyes.

“Fuck! What the hell is that?” she swore.

“Must be motion sense,” Bruce answered.

“Well, when will they turn off?”

“When we’re not in front of it.”

Natasha groaned and began walking the best she could without looking at where she was going. She kicked a wooden step and grasped for a rail. Once she found one, she began climbing the stairs. She could hear Bruce’s creaking steps behind her. She moved her hand away once the light wasn’t in her eyes and looked up. Atop the stairs was the longest ladder she’d ever seen. Hopefully, it wouldn’t break under them. She rubbed her bare hands together and began climbing. Ten rungs up, she checked behind her for Bruce. He’d just made it to the top of the stairs. Her focus went back to climbing.

“What happens if we can’t reach someone?” Bruce shouted.

“We’ll figure that out later,” Natasha said.

“Okay. And if we do, how will we tell the others about this?”

“We’ll figure that out later, too. Let’s just focus on making it up there first.”

Natasha stepped off the ladder once she reached the next level, and saw there was yet another ladder to actually get into the radio room. She waited for Bruce and helped him up before climbing again. She shoved the hatch open with one push and slid across the floor, taking a moment to rest her arms before she did anything else. Bruce came in twenty seconds later and shut and locked the hatch.

“That went smoothly,” he said. Natasha knocked on the floor. There wasn’t enough wood in the world for her to knock on.

She pushed herself to her feet and began walking around the tower. There was plenty of equipment up here – a computer, a printer, and a radio – that looked pretty old. She started toying with the radio and couldn’t turn it on. Fuck. She tried a lamp sitting on the table that also stayed off. There had to be a fuse box around here…

“Shit,” Bruce said. Natasha looked to him and saw him holding up papers at the printer. He turned to her and held them up. They were the missing posters for Angela and Loki. By the looks of it, no one had been up here to retrieve them. Not even the police.

“Isn’t that comforting,” she muttered. She walked outside the room and went to the right, hoping to find the fuse. She saw a metal box and opened it up, but instead found a flare gun. She put it in the back of her pants and continued looking. Fortunately, the next box was the fuse, and she switched it on. The lights inside the tower flicked on with it.

Inside, she walked right up to Bruce and held out the flare. “You’ll need this,” she said, trying to hand it off.

“Are you saying I can’t defend myself without a flare?” he suggested teasingly.

“Not at all. But if worse comes to worse, I’d feel much better knowing you have this.” Bruce looked up at her hesitantly, but accepted the gun and pocketed it. Who knew why they would need a flare? In fact…

“Why don’t you just shoot it now?” he asked.

“Because I don’t want certain people to know we’re up here. Being outside is endangering enough without the added risk of a serial killer,” she answered. She started toying with the radio and trying to turn it on. It was severely outdated.

“Oh, here, let me,” Bruce said. He flipped a switch and pressed a button, and there was static.

“Thanks.” Natasha moved over to the microphone and held down the button on it. “Hello? Is anybody out there?” she asked. There was static. “Mayday, mayday, we need help!” More static.

“It’s an old radio, Nat,” Bruce said.

“But there’s static, and if there’s static, that means someone is out there and can hear us,” she said.

“Nat–”

“ _Can you please repeat your transmission?_ ”

Natasha and Bruce stared at the speaker. Holy shit, there was someone out there! They could hear them! Finally, something was going right!

“Please, we need help!” Natasha exclaimed desperately into the mic.

“ _Hello? Can you repeat your transmission?_ ”

“We’re trapped on–”

“ _Ma’am, you need to take a moment to calm down and then tell us calmly and slowly. We can’t understand you._ ”

Natasha backed away from the mic and inhaled through her nose. Bruce started reached for the mic when she held out her hand to stop him. She could do this. She leaned forward and held down the button. “My name is Natalia Romanova, and my friends and I are trapped on Blackwood Mountain. Someone has already killed one of us. Do you copy?” she said. She let go of the button.

“Why Natalia?” Bruce asked. Really, was that important right now?

“It’s my official name,” she answered anyway.

“ _Transmission received. But until the storm subsides, we can’t send a helicopter up there to retrieve you._ ”

Natasha pressed the button and tried not to panic. “When’s the soonest you can get up here?”

“ _…Dawn. We’ll just need you to stay put until dawn._ ”

Natasha looked at Bruce. Both of them had the same look in their eyes: would they make it until dawn?

There was a crash against the floor. Natasha and Bruce looked down and saw the hatch banging, not breaking against the lock. The two grabbed for each other and backed into the corner. Natasha readied herself to grab the flare gun out of Bruce’s pocket just in case. The would-be intruder left them alone after a few moments, and the relief hadn’t had enough time to settle in when there was a loud snap outside. Before either could as what it was, Natasha and Bruce felt the tower shifting toward them. The looked out the windows across from them and saw the trees going down and the sky filling their sight. Natasha pushed Bruce toward the other side and ran to grab on to something too, but she was too slow, and by the time the tower was sideways, she was falling.

* * *

 

**FIRE TOWER. 2:34 AM.**

“Natasha!” Bruce cried. He watched her crash right against the windows. The glass began to crack underneath her. “Natasha! Look out!” Natasha turned her head just as a cabinet flew toward her, and she rolled out of the way just in time. Still, the next window broke under her, and she fell. Bruce’s heart dropped, but he could see her barely holding on to the railing. Just barely. Another piece of debris, this one on fire, fell at her. She dodged that one too. Bruce held on until he was sure the tower was done falling and dropped to the floor (which had been the wall seconds ago). What was the ceiling/roof had been torn. Bruce looked down at the mines. They were way too close for comfort to them.

Bruce steadied himself and leaned down to Natasha, who was hanging on the best she could. “Grab my hand!” he said.

“I can’t!” she cried.

“Yes you can, Nat! I know you can! Grab on!”

“Bruce, if you try to save me, we’re both going to end up down there!”

“I’m not leaving you to die!”

“I won’t!”

“How do you know?”

Natasha closed her eyes, and tears fell down the sides of her face. Bruce watched the streaks of mascara form. It was rare Natasha cried. She opened her eyes again and said, “Just trust me. I’ll be fine. And if you jump over there, we can both meet back at the lodge, and we can warn the others.”

“Nat…”

The tower shifted closer to the mines. Natasha cried harder. Bruce stared at her, then looked up to the ledge not too far from him. How could she expect him to just leave her?

“Bruce, please, save yourself! If you loved me, you would do it!” Natasha shouted. Oh, fuck, she could be guilt-tripping as hell. Bruce looked down at Natasha and nodded.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you too,” Natasha said with a sniffle.

Bruce took two steps back and ran forward to jump onto the ledge. Once his feet left the wood, the tower shifted down, the fell altogether, with Natasha screaming as it plunged into the mines. Bruce quickly recovered and looked over the ledge. There was nothing in sight.

“ _Natasha!_ ” he screamed. His voice echoed. Holy shit, was she dead? She couldn’t be dead. First Thor, and now... No. He wouldn’t let himself believe it. Natasha was a fighter. She wouldn’t go down this easily.

A loud screech came from down in the mines. Bruce’s eyes widened. Natasha wasn’t alone down there. He pushed himself to his feet and headed on a path that he hoped led back to the cabin.

* * *

 

**HALLWAY. 2:03 AM.**

“He’s not in there,” Pietro said as he closed the bathroom door.

“What do you mean he’s not in there?” Wanda asked.

“The bathtub if full, his phone and earbuds are sitting on the floor, and Steve is nowhere in sight.”

“What, you think he just wandered off then?”

“Or someone lured him out.” Pietro took the flashlight from Wanda and shined it down the hall. “We have to go find him.”

“Pietro, we need to worry about ourselves for a moment. What just happened to you – to _us_ – was very traumatic, and even though we could save Thor, that doesn’t mean–”

“Shut up!” Pietro snapped. Wanda gasped and took a step back. Pietro grimaced and rubbed his hand over his eye. “We’re both exhausted and starving and going a bit nuts right now, okay? Yes, we need to worry about ourselves, but our friends are also in danger. And no, we can’t save everyone. I already know that. But I’d like to try to save at least one person if I can, alright?”

Wanda nodded. At least her brother cared about others. She felt so selfish – though the blood coating the left half of her body gave her a reason as to why. Going after Steve could put them in another life-or-death situation, and quite frankly, one was enough to last her a lifetime. When Pietro motioned for her to follow him downstairs, she followed quietly and looked all around her, paranoid that the creepy guy with the mask was going to pop around the corner any second now and hit her again. One punch from a stranger was enough to last her a lifetime as well.

“Thank you for saving me, Pietro,” she said as they entered the basement.

Pietro stopped and turned around, smiling at his sister. “As horrible as it sounds, it wasn’t a hard choice to make. I couldn’t just let my baby sister die,” he said. Wanda rolled her eyes. As if those twelve minutes made any difference. If anything, _Lorna_ was the baby sister. She was the baby by five years. But that didn’t matter right now. Finding Steve did.

They walked through the theater room and into the already-opened basement door. They walked into the back, where they were earlier finding the Ouija board (at least, before Wanda was creeped out and decided to go back upstairs). Pietro shined the flashlight around in the darker spots, though there weren’t many, and it was evident that Steve wasn’t here. Wanda was ready to ask where they should explore next when something brushed against her leg. She screamed and the light flashed past her at a rocking horse. It moved back and forth, only touching her when it leaned all the way forward.

“Did you push that?” Pietro asked.

“I don’t think so,” Wanda said. She looked past the horse. “Look. It’s a dollhouse.” She stepped up to it and tried to open it, but it was locked shut. She felt around it and found that the attic window was hiding a keyhole. Who had a keyhole for a dollhouse? Why would a dollhouse need a key?

“I don’t think Angela or Loki were the type for dollhouses,” Pietro said.

“Yeah, maybe, but still – oh, gosh, look!” Wanda pointed at a ghost as the end of the room, passing across.

“What? What are you talking about? Look at what?” Pietro asked after the ghost had disappeared.

“You idiot, there was a ghost! What were you doing, playing on your phone?”

“Wanda, you’re starting to get delirious. How about we get you some water?”

“I am perfectly fine!”

A picture flung off the wall where the ghost had come from. This time, both twins had seen it.

“That wasn’t just me, right?” Wanda asked.

“I saw the picture frame move on its own too,” Pietro said. Wanda ran over there before her brother could stop her and hoped the ghost was back, just to prove Pietro wrong, but it wasn’t there. She looked at the pale area of the wall where the frame had been hanging and saw a key. She picked it up and examined it. It had to go to the dollhouse.

“Why did you want me to find this?” she whispered.

“Wanda?”

Wanda turned and held up the key. “Maybe this was what the ghost wanted us to find!” she said.

“That’s ridiculous. What does a dollhouse have to do with anything?” Pietro asked.

“We’re about to find out.” Wanda started back for the dollhouse when she saw the ghost again. Pietro froze behind her. Now he couldn’t blame this on delirium. The ghost didn’t look at them, just pointed forward. Right at the dollhouse. Then it moved forward, and Wanda rushed to catch it. Again, it was gone.

“Why did it look so much like Loki?” Pietro asked. Wanda hadn’t noticed that until now. She focused on unlocking the dollhouse instead. Pietro continued, “Is this what he meant at the séance? Is this what he wanted us to find? Maybe it was originally in the library before his family moved it downstairs.”

“Perhaps,” Wanda replied. She turned the key to the right and the dollhouse opened itself. Wanda gasped as Pietro shined his light inside it. There they were. All of them. In doll form. Each doll was unclothed, but it was undeniable, especially by the hairstyles, such as Natasha’s long red hair before she cut it last month, and Clint’s doll have a few bandages on its face. They were all in the exact position as last year, including the Loki doll standing at the door.

“Who could have done this? One of us?” Pietro asked.

“I don’t think I want to know,” Wanda said.

“Is this even how it happened?”

“Yes, you dolt! Look!” She pointed at Pietro’s doll, the one with white-blonde hair who was holding the camera. Then to Tony’s doll, which had facial hair drawn on in marker. There was no denying of it. And even on the floor above were the Thor, Sera, and Angela dolls.

Then the Loki doll’s head fell to the side, its eyes fluttering madly, and Wanda and Pietro jumped. The roof to the dollhouse sprung open. Wanda reached her hand inside and pulled out a journal. It was Loki’s, just as she remembered from the year before. She opened it to a random page and read the numerous entries Loki had made just about Tony. Then the one about them all coming to the cabin last year, including how excited he was for a specific guest (again, Tony). The last page was all about the note they’d left as a prank, written at one in the morning while they giggled like children. Only a child would create such a harmful prank without thinking of the impending repercussions. Wanda put the journal back and slammed the dollhouse shut.

“Are we bad people for doing what we did?” she asked.

“I’d like to think we aren’t,” Pietro said. He linked his arm around Wanda’s and led her to the next room. She felt like a bad person.

Wanda and Pietro split up to look around. There was a stack of newspapers on the floor still tied together, with a pair of scissors sitting atop them. Wanda grabbed the scissors and put them in her coat pocket without thinking twice. The newspaper had no interest to her. There was a pile of books next to them about cameras and lenses. Those had no appeal either. After all, the Olsons had a big part in Canada’s film industry. It made sense that they owned such books.

“Hey, check this out,” Pietro called out. He waited for Wanda to come by before pointing out the camera and projector sitting in the far end of the room. He pressed the play button and waited for the reel to start projecting.

Wanda’s eyes widened. This was them from last year. The video showed them all hiding around Tony’s room, giggling and shorting and elbowing as they did. It focused on each person every few frames, and Wanda’s stomach churned when she came onscreen. Then Loki came in, so eager that his crush had asked him to come in. Wanda turned away when Loki started undressing, and listened to the sounds Pietro made as the reel continued. She only looked back once Pietro had stopped it, frozen on everyone running out of the room after Loki.

“We might be bad people,” he said stoically. This time, Wanda was the one to move him away, and they headed for the next door, which was too heavy for her. Pietro had her stand back so he could try when Wanda noticed something out of the corner of her eye.

“Is that Steve?” she asked.

“Wanda, hurry up!” Pietro grunted as he struggled to keep the door open.

“But I see Steve!”

“Wanda! We’ll be separated!”

Wanda turned away from Steve and quickly slipped through the door before Pietro followed her. It slammed heavily behind them. Wanda would rather take longer to find Steve than be stranded alone in this basement. She still headed to the right, where she was certain Steve would be. Pietro followed her and made sure she didn’t trip over the things laying around.

They ended up where Wanda had said, where there was Steve sitting in a chair. She smiled and turned the chair around – _finally_ , they could go back upstairs – but gasped when there was a terrifying clown mask instead of a chiseled face.

“It’s a dummy,” Pietro stated, as if it were obvious.

“Are you sure?” After all, it was wearing Steve’s clothes, snow boots included.

“I’m sure. Now let’s go and find the real Steve.” Pietro guided Wanda away from the dummy and further back into the basement.

They passed a window that caught there attention. “Steve!” Wanda exclaimed. She pounded on the window. He was passed out nude in a chair. “Is he dead?”

“No, you can see him breathing,” Pietro said. He pointed at Steve’s chest which rose and fell slowly.

“He must be freezing! We need to get him out of there!”

“Okay, but–” A wooden plank hit Pietro from behind and he fell unconscious. There was the psycho from before, and Wanda found herself backing away as he dragged himself closer. She quickly glanced at her brother, who laid on the concrete. She felt anger surge in her. How dare he hit her brother! She grabbed the scissors from her pocket and lunged forward, stabbing the psycho in the shoulder with the blades. He screamed, and Wanda felt some satisfaction, before he reared his fist back and nailed her in the eye.

* * *

 

**UNKNOWN. 3:11 AM.**

Pietro groaned as he awoke and tried to move, but only found his right hand free. There was a few lights around them, and he could see Wanda sitting across a table from him, her head hanging low. Pietro tried to shift the chair, but it was bolted to the floor. And his left wrist and two ankles were cuffed to the table too. Fuck. He craned his neck to see if Wanda was in the same boat. She was, but both of her wrists were cuffed. Double fuck. Pietro looked at the table. There was a handgun sitting there. He grabbed it and looked around. That psycho was going to get a bullet to the eye when he saw him.

Wanda moaned weakly as she woke up. She lifted her head, and Pietro could see one of her eyes were swollen. That asshole must have punched her. That piece of shit was going to get his comeuppance the second he was freed.

“Pietro?” Wanda asked. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, but I promise, I’m going to get us out of here,” Pietro said.

“My face hurts.”

“Well, a black eye doesn’t feel like rose petals. I swear, when I see that fuck…”

“Pietro?” He looked at his sister, whose face crumbled. “I don’t want to die.”

“You are _not_ going to die, Wanda. I won’t let that happen to you,” he said. “You will make it out of this–”

As if on cue, two sawblades above their heads turned on. Pietro and Wanda looked up to see them slowly crawling down. Wanda screamed and tried to get out of her chair. Pietro wasn’t sure what to do – or if there was anything to do.

**HELLO THERE MY SPECIAL LITTLE SUBJECTS.**

Pietro growled. Of course this fuck had something to do with this.

“I’m so scared,” Wanda cried.

“Don’t be,” Pietro said.

**OH, YOU SHOULD BE, WANDA, BECAUSE HERE’S THE TWIST:**

Pietro didn’t know how this could get any worse.

**PIETRO HAS MADE ONE FATAL CHOICE ALREADY TODAY, AND NOW, HE MUST MAKE ANOTHER.**

Pietro looked at the handgun he was holding. Surely, the psycho didn’t mean…?

**PIETRO, YOU CAN TAKE THAT GUN IN FRONT OF YOU AND SHOOT WANDA, OR YOU CAN SHOOT YOURSELF.**

Wanda screamed louder, but the sawblades were starting to drown out her voice. They didn’t stop coming closer.

**WHOEVER IS LEFT CAN LIVE! THE CHOICE IS YOURS.**

Pietro snarled and shot twice at the sawblades. Wanda ducked her head as he did. His only result was the psycho laughing.

**DON’T BE SO SILLY, PIETRO.**

Pietro looked up at Wanda. She screamed and cried and tried to pull herself out of this chair. He looked at the gun. Why was he the one forced to make these decisions? He looked again at Wanda. He’d promised her that she would make it out of this. He didn’t want to get in the way of that. He put the gun to his jaw, and Wanda cried for him to stop as he pulled the trigger.


	8. Chapter 7

**UNKNOWN. 3:05 AM. FOUR HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

There was a faint ringing in Steve’s ears as he came to. He tried to stretch his arms but couldn’t move them. Same with his legs. He tried pulling his limbs free and started spinning. Rolling chair. Perfect. He opened his eyes slowly and found himself nude. Right. He’d lost his towel however long ago. Someone was calling his name, but he wasn’t sure who. He tried turning his chair toward the sound. He looked and saw Tony through a grate in the wall, and Tony quickly turned his head.

“Aw, dude, where are your clothes?” he asked.

“I don’t know–”

“Shh!”

Steve was appalled for a moment before he remembered that there was a masked psycho in the building, and they could be anywhere. Tony continued whispering, but Steve couldn’t hear him. “What?” he hissed.

“Come over here!” Tony whispered, waving his arm as he did. Steve nodded and turned his back to Tony, then began pushing his chair toward the grate. He crashed against the wall, wincing as a brick scraped his elbow, then pushed off the wall until he crashed against the grated wall. “Aw, dude, your ass is right in my face…”

“I didn’t ask to be in this situation,” Steve replied. He hissed when something cold brushed against his wrist, but a sharp _snip_ had his hands freed. He looked down and saw a machete poking through the grate. Steve took it and cut the duct tape around his legs. That was one problem solved. He stood, moved the chair, and crouched so he was nearly eye-level with Tony. He handed the machete back, then gasped at the three fingers that grabbed it. “What happened to your hand?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Where’s–”

“ _I said I don’t want to talk about it._ Look, all you need to know right now is that there’s some fucking maniac up here who’s trying to kill us,” Tony said.

Steve nodded. “I know. I saw them. They – oh, god, they killed Thor. There was this huge sawblade, and–”

“Steve, this is going to sound heartless, but right now, we need to get everyone else together and find a way out of here, and I’m a little stuck, so can you get me through this door?”

Steve looked through the grate at the door then nodded at Tony. He stood up and brushed the little rocks from his knees and shins. He noticed a backpack on the doorknob with a flashlight hanging out of it. He looked inside. There was some clothes and shoes. He could put them on after making sure Tony can get out of wherever he is. He slipped the backpack straps around his shoulders and turned on the flashlight.

The door opened with ease, and he turned left and down a short set of stairs. He looked at the door to his right and pushed at it curiously. It didn’t budge. Then he tried the door to his left, with the wooden plank holding it shut, that likely had Tony behind it. He moved the plank out of the way and opened the door. Sure enough, there was Tony, who held eye contact with Steve’s crotch for a second then immediately turned away with his eyes squeezed shut. Steve rolled his eyes decided now was a good time to get dressed.

“I’ll tell you when to look,” he muttered.

“Yeah, thanks, man. Much appreciated. Also, not to sound gay, but holy shit, your body is just… hot damn.”

“Tony?”

“Steve?”

“Shut up.”

“Duly noted.”

Steve was much more comfortable decked in a red sweater, blue sweatpants, and white sneakers. Oddly, they were all his size. He decided not to question that now. “It’s safe to look,” he announced. Tony opened one eye and checked out Steve before opening the other and sighing with relief. Again, Steve rolled his eyes. It wasn’t like seeing his dick would make Tony instantly gay. Drama queen.

“Apparently, this is the old hotel. I have no idea how I ended up here, but I did. How about you?” Tony said.

“I was knocked unconscious with gas and dragged here,” Steve deadpanned.

“Right. Sorry.”

Steve and Tony whipped their heads toward the other door when they heard screaming. It sounded eerily like Wanda. They rushed over and threw themselves against the door thrice before it opened. They burst through and found it dark inside, before a light turned on and they saw Wanda and Pietro sitting at a table, Pietro holding a gun in his hand, and a pair of sawblades over their heads. Both were looking around in shock, before Wanda screamed at something in the distance. There was the psycho, who had Wanda frightened, Tony and Steve in offensive stances, and Pietro taking shots at them. The psycho, who now had blood splattered on their clothes, laughed.

“Oh, Pietro…” they said. Steve noticed the strands of blonde hair that looked oddly familiar.

The psycho reached for their mask and took it off.

* * *

 

**MINES. 3:00 AM.**

Natasha groaned as she woke up, and opened her eyes slowly. She covered her mouth with her hand and screamed into it when she realized she was dangling above the drop she’d thought would be the end of her. She looked back up. There was the fire tower, ironically on fire, and a cable wrapped around her ankle. She looked and saw a broken railroad track not too far away. She gave herself a few seconds to collect her thoughts and calm down enough to get down to business. She slowly began swinging herself back and forth, remembering the research she did in physics class about momentum. Every swing had her shifting a little more each time, and after a good ten swings, she was close to the track. She reached out and missed. The fire tower creaked and Natasha knew she needed to make this. She swung away and pushed herself forward with all of her might. She grabbed the track and held on tight as the cable broke. Natasha moved from rung to rung like she was on monkey bars, trying to race the fire tower that was going to fall any second. She dropped from the track down to solid rock and landed on her side. She looked back and began moving away as the tower did finally fall. A piece of debris struck her in the shin, and she howled in pain and tried to dodge the other pieces raining around her, especially the ones on fire.

She had no clue if Bruce was alive. She didn’t get to see if he made it off the fire tower in time. If he didn’t, she just witnessed his death. But that wasn’t something to worry about. She would cry for him only when she was sure he was dead. The mentality of him making it off the tower was much nicer.

Natasha stood shakily and looked around for something to help her. She found a rather thick stick leaning against a tub of oil (both of which seemed convenient and purposefully placed) near the aflame debris. She ripped off the bottom of her sweater (her grandmother will forgive her for ruining it one day) and wrapped it around the club, then dipped it in the oil, then placed it in the fire. Once her newfound torch was lit, she was ready to find a way out of the mines.

As she walked through the mines, she could hear the screeches of something inhuman ringing out. She shivered at the possibility of what could be in here. It was alive, undoubtedly, and possibly thirsting for someone like her. She shivered and continued through the empty mines.

Empty. The only word that could describe this place. Natasha had read the articles about the mine collapse years ago, and the fates of the miners trapped in here. It had been abandoned since the late fifties, with only the police presence surrounding the mines as its only use ever since. Everything was rotting and breaking in there, left wherever they’d last been used. No sign of life outside the sound of dripping, a slight howl of wind from the storm outside, and an occasional screech. Like the cliché horror movie this night has become.

Natasha found a large wooden door that most likely led somewhere closer to the cabin. She pushed against it, but it wouldn’t budge. She had decided half-heartedly to go the other way, then found a cart sitting on the tracks with its brakes on. Natasha looked between the cart and the door and decided _what the hell_. She unlocked the brakes and stepped back as the cart barreled through the door, breaking through as if it were balsa wood. Her journey continued.

There was a single torch perched high against a wall that Natasha lit. She used the better light to check out her injured shin. It had stopped bleeding and was scabbing over. The pain was duller now. Once she had a safe place to sit and relax, she would tend to this.

Natasha looked up and saw an elevator, open and ready to use. She pulled the lever and stood in place. It had to run on electricity. There had to be an outlet somewhere.

As she stepped out of the elevator and began her hunt for a generator or fuse box of sorts, a burst of fire came from the level above her. She jumped back with a hand clamper over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream. She backed away without turning away from where the fire came from until she backed into a metal beam. She looked around it and saw a ladder leading up. As much as she didn’t want to use it, it seemed she had no choice. Up was the way out. Natasha climbed the ladder the best as she could with her bad leg and handful of torch. Just as she set the torch down and was ready to throw herself onto the landing in front of her, the ladder fell back, and Natasha was knocked through the wooden floor. She grit her teeth and tried not to cry out as she slid down the rock and into the darkness, now deeper in the mines and once again lost.

“Fuck,” she said. She stood up with a bit of a stumble. She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out her cellphone. Twelve percent battery. Well, fuck, hopefully she wouldn’t need it too long. She turned on the flashlight and started again from square one. There were skeleton heads right in front of her flashlight that startled her, but again, she kept quiet. The last thing she wanted to do was alert whomever was down here and let them know where she was.

She looked back at where she had just fell from. No way back up, it seemed. At least not that way. Hopefully there was another.

Natasha headed forward and had to throw herself against a wooden barrier to find her way out. It was through an open space beyond the barrier that had a ladder quite the climb up toward. Natasha turned off her phone’s flashlight and tucked it into her back pocket before steadying herself on the rocks. She leapt from one landing to another, making sure there was a place for each hand and foot to grab on to when she made the jumps. She climbed this ladder much faster in case it would fall again, and fortunately it didn’t.

A thought crossed her mind. Natasha took out her phone and sent a quick message to Bruce:

**I TOLD YOU TO TRUST ME.**

There. Now he wouldn’t be worrying all night about her. She turned on the flashlight again and continued her trek.

It only took another two minutes for her phone to give in and die on her. Now she wouldn’t have any light source, or any knowledge if Bruce was okay. And to make matters worse, there was the fire again. Her plans for tonight were to have sex, not to deal with this shit. Her life was just one giant pile of peaches and cream right now.

She trudged forward and somehow found herself where she had meant to be before the ladder broke, with her handmade torch sitting ablaze on the landing. Natasha picked it up and looked around for what to do next when a level caught her eye. She pulled it all the way up and was greeted with lights. It was far from inconspicuous, but it made everything easier to see. It was also the first thing to go her way in the last four hours.

With no other way down, Natasha headed down the stairs that led to what she hoped was the long way around to the elevator. She walked through the smallest, most claustrophobic tunnel of her life, where the air was noticeably colder and crisper. At the end was an opening leading up to the surface. Natasha stepped up and tested out climbing it. There was no way she could make it out. She stepped on something odd and looked to see half of a broke sign. The second half of the word “danger” was on it. Great.

Natasha wandered around looking for any sort of mining equipment that she could use when a picture sitting on a barrel caught her eye. She picked it up. Her eyes widened when she recognized Loki’s face, showing off the tattoo of a serpent (he had been adamant that it wasn’t a snake) running up his left side. She remembered him showing off to everyone that summer. It felt like so long ago. The picture was folded and tucked into her coat pocket.

Then she realized that it was odd for this picture to be all the way down here. She turned around and inspected the open space. Everything about this felt wrong.

She went up to a wall covered with a metal sheet and broken wooden plank, neither of which seemed to have landed there accidentally like most of the things down here, and shoved them aside. **02/02/14** was carved into the rock, exactly one year ago, and about thirty tally marks were beneath it. Who was down here making tally marks?

Natasha began wandering around looking for the answers. In an alcove laid a broken wooden cross with Angela’s name carved into it. She dropped it and backed against the wall. She refused to believe it. Believing it meant that everything they’d done last year, those things that happened because she dared Bucky to steal Loki’s journal last year, got them killed. Natasha got herself out of the alcove and took a minute to collect her thoughts when something shining in the distance caught her eye. Against her own wishes, she walked up to it. It was a tiny metal heart – a locket, upon closer inspection. Natasha opened it. It was Loki’s – his name was engraved in it, and she remembered him wearing it – with a picture of Loki, Angela, and Thor inside. That went in her pocket as well. Half for proof, half for his parents. Loki and Angela hadn’t died. They were alive down here and clearly moving around, right?

Natasha pulled off a metal door from the gated wall and tried to find the elevator again. There was something sitting in the corner shaped like a person with its back turned. Natasha touched it gently, and suddenly, Angela’s head was sitting on the ground and staring at her with dead eyes.

She credited herself for not screaming, but she couldn’t stop herself from crying. Angela was dead. There was no body, but it was just Angela’s head. Holy fuck. They got Angela killed. _She_ got Angela killed, and none of them had known the truth until now. And even worse, logic said that if Angela was dead, Loki was down here, alive and alone, scared with his dead big sister and waiting for help that never found him. How had they never been found? Why was it this hard to find them? Her head was spinning. This was too much to take in all at once, on top of the other shit that had been happening.

Natasha pulled herself together and continued walking down the path. She found herself back at the elevator, and this time it worked. It jerked upward and moved much faster than she had expected, causing her to lean against the wall for support. It halted to a stop at the top – still inside the mines. Natasha refrained from swearing and stamping her feet like a child and stepped out to find the real exit.

There was someone else down here, behind the elevator, coming her way. Natasha hid herself behind the wall and prayed they wouldn’t notice her or her very obvious torch. They didn’t give her any attention, but she didn’t want to wait for it either. She sprinted away.

“Get back here!” they shouted after.

Natasha didn’t slow down, not even as she leapt over the openings in the walkway. She paused to throw her torch into a pile of oil to cause a wall of fire she hoped would deter them, then hid herself behind plywood, thinking she could wait it out before they gave up. She counted to thirty before looking to see if the coast was clear.

They were standing right in front of the opening, looking at her through dark-tinted goggles.

* * *

 

**HOTEL BASEMENT. 3:06 AM.**

Tony thought he had gone blind when the psycho unmasked himself. Either that or he had finally lost his damn mind, because there was Thor with the biggest shit-eating grin, looking right at Pietro and Wanda, both of whom were close to crying. Steve looked less surprised than he thought, and since it was Steve, he started helping free Pietro and Wanda from their chairs instead of gaping at Thor like the rest of them.

“Now _that_ , my friends, was the best performance of the century. Passion, anger, drama – all we need is romance and we would have the perfect blockbuster! And only if we had a few more leading ladies to help round things out, but beggars can’t be choosers,” Thor said. He gave a hearty laugh. “How do you feel? Scared? Humiliated? Hopeless? All those emotions that Angela and Loki felt last year? Well, guess what? They didn’t get a chance to laugh it off with us! No, they are all dead, my friends! Dead, dead, dead!”

“No one is laughing,” Pietro said. He dropped his fake gun and rubbed his chafing wrists. Wanda didn’t move a muscle.

“It was you the whole time?” Wanda asked shakily.

“From start to finish, my dear Wanda. You see, with my parents haunted by this cabin now, and the police finally cleared out, I knew that this would be the perfect place to execute my revenge! With all the money and power, you can do whatever you want – I know Tony can relate. For example, you can wire your house to randomly turn on or off lights, or create ghosts to follow your friends around, or to control sawblades!

“I am sure you are wondering about my death. Well, it was very simple. Nothing a little dummy and pig innards couldn’t assist with. Oh, and only if you had not chosen me, would Wanda have to live with the idea that you would have chosen to kill her. Good thing you were predictable, Pietro. And Steve, your reaction to the video was priceless. Five out of five stars!

“Smile my friends! After tonight, we are going to all be beyond filthy rich! We shall become internet sensations!”

“You recorded us?” Pietro asked. Tony just then became aware of the cameras pointing at Pietro and Wanda.

“Of course! This will be the most authentic horror movie of our lives! We will all live together in a mansion and drink the finest wines as we break box offices globally!” Thor exclaimed. His smile seemed frozen. “Are you all surprised still? That I am the mastermind behind all this?”

“Thor, it was so obviously you. Everything had your name written all over it,” Steve said.

Tony replayed Thor’s words over in his head. This had all been him. He had planned it from start to finish. No wonder everyone was so paranoid about coming back up here. Clint, Natasha, Sharon…

“You killed her,” he whispered.

Thor’s smile faltered. “I beg your pardon?”

“You killed Sharon!”

Everyone froze. Time itself seemed to freeze. Steve looked like he’d been punched in the gut. Wanda’s crying worsened. Pietro looked just as murderous as Tony felt. And Thor… the bastard had the gall to look confused.

“And you’re going to pay, you fucking dick!” Tony screamed. He ran forward and punched Thor with all his might. To his own surprise, Thor was knocked out with that one punch. He would be impressed with himself if he wasn’t so pissed.

“What do you mean Sharon’s dead?” Steve asked.

Tony looked back at Steve. God, he looked like a child whose puppy was run over by their own mom. He took a deep breath. “She was dragged out of the cabin by him and into the mines. I found her on top of an elevator before it… before it… it just fucking collapsed. There was no way she made it. I saw it happen.” He wiped his knuckles against his eyes. “I saw him leaving the mines after she fell.” He looked away, but he could hear Wanda and Steve both crying. Holy fuck, what had the night become?

“So, what do we do with him?” Steve asked.

“I have an idea,” Pietro suggested.

* * *

 

**PATH TO SHED. 3:37 AM.**

“My friends, I swear to you, I have no idea what happened to–!”

“Say her name and I slit your fucking throat and throw you off a cliff,” Tony threated, pressing the machete closer to Thor’s collarbone. He was walking Thor to the shed that Pietro said would be a perfect mock-jail, one hand holding the rope binding his hands together, the other wielding the machete. Pietro led the way there, ignoring the other boys as he wrapped his mind around everything.

He hadn’t seen Bruce nor Natasha in nearly three hours and had no idea if they were okay. He also had no clue if Thor had something to do with why he hadn’t seen them. Hopefully they were able to find help – or better yet, a way off of this crazy mountain.

Their parents hadn’t reached back to them at all. Last year there was amazing cellphone service, so that made no sense. Again, something he assumed Thor had a role in.

Tony shoved Thor onto the ground when they reached the shed, which meant Pietro had to help drag him over to the nearest post. Tony kept his machete pointed at Thor while Pietro untied Thor’s hands and retied them around the post. Thor grinned and began to wiggle to mess with Pietro, until a slash across the cheek shut him up.

“Don’t do that,” Pietro warned.

“He deserves more than a little scratch,” Tony growled. He held the machete up and moved it closer to Thor. “Maybe a broken spine for a broken spine. I’m sure that’s what Sharon has no, don’t you? You would know, right, murderer?”

“Tony, I swear to you, I don’t know what happened to Sharon. I would never hurt her – I would never hurt any of you!” Thor insisted.

“You used sawblades against my sister twice,” Pietro pointed out.

“I was never going to let them hurt you!”

“You gave her a black eye and punched the both of us! We thought we were as good as dead!”

“But you didn’t die, did you?”

“Just let it go, Pietro,” Tony said. “Go back to the cabin and make sure Wanda is okay.”

“Are you not coming with?” Pietro asked.

“No. I’ll make sure he doesn’t pull any funny business. Besides, I want to have a heart-to-heart with him and get some answers.” Tony pulled up a nearby stool and sat down. “I’ll be there in the morning.”

Pietro thought about waiting behind with Tony, since Thor was quite large and could take down Tony easily even if he had a machete, but decided that Wanda, naturally, came first. He walked back to the cabin without giving Tony and Thor a second thought.


	9. Chapter 8

**MINES. 4:01 AM. THREE HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

Natasha froze. She didn’t know what to do. The stranger stared back at her. She took in their features. They had dark skin, and an eyepatch over one eye under the goggle. She didn’t see any hair sticking out from their hat.

“You need to get out of here!” they exclaimed. Natasha was confused. A knapsack was shoved in her hands. “Use these! Go!” The screeches from before were much closer, and Natasha was shoved back. She tripped into a pit and rolled down into a lower level of the mines with her torch. She recovered and looked inside the bag. Flares. She put the knapsack around her shoulders and picked up her torch. She moved much quicker this time.

The screeches grew louder the further she went, and everything in her mind told her to turn around, but there was no way she could climb up out of the ditch, and whatever was down here with her was probably just as bad as what was up there that prompted the stranger to shove her away. The key difference was having someone at her side who had no qualms going against whatever this was. She wasn’t one to back down either, but she had no idea who or what she was up against, and didn’t want to find out.

There was a dead end with a thin enough gap for her to fit into, one side stone and the other wooden planks. This was when the imaginary violins that would play in a movie picked up tempo. She knew this was when the thing would make its appearance. Better now than never. She needed to size them up in order to know how to take it down. She pressed herself against the stone and crept along it down the gap.

A hand burst through the wood – fingers-first, not closed-fist, and in one easy hit – right behind her. Natasha quickly ran away from it. Now wasn’t the time to size it up – it made its power known well enough in that second. The hand reached again, still behind her, prompting her to run faster. It screeched at her. Out of the gap, Natasha jumped over a gap in the walkway. The torch fell, and she quickly grabbed it and continued running. More screeching followed. She found herself at a two-way. A sign pointing to the elevator had her running left, and she would hear it coming after her still. It didn’t sound as tired as she was starting to feel.

Inside the elevator, she pulled the lever and crouched on the floor as it cranked itself upward. This creature was powerful and inhuman. Its skin was grey and pulled tight. It didn’t want to start off with any foreplay. It was ready to start fucking here and now. And all she had working for her was a bag of flares, a torch, and a dead cellphone. Shit. Would anyone look for her like they did Loki and Angela? Would they find her? Would she die?

The elevator halted to a stop. She ran. Anything in her path was knocked over – barrels, chains that pulled down large rocks, more barrels. Once leaked oil, and Natasha lit one of the flares and dropped it in the oil before turning and sprinting. Adrenaline was flowing through her veins. She couldn’t stop herself. She found a conveyor belt and turned it on. Thankfully, it worked. She hopped on and rode up. She stayed on and noticed a drop. She peaked over and sized up the jumped before crawling back a bit. She leapt over the gap and made her away across. The shed on the other side was blocked by wreckage, and the creature was at the top of the conveyor belt. She found an open door and rushed through it. She shoved it shut and locked it. For a second, she decided, she could put her back against it and rest.

Big mistake.

The creature’s head broke through the door and its teeth sunk into her right shoulder. She dropped her torch. Natasha screamed in pain and punched the creature in the face. It reeled back, and her hand was intact, so she continued running. More things were knocked over behind her as the creature broke down the rest of the door. She saw a zip-line ahead and the handlebar inside the shed. She grabbed it with both hands and ran, pushing off and propelling forward at the last possible second. The creature screeched, but she was out of reach. Natasha swung back and forth as she zipped away, and again, had just a second to breathe and relax when the handlebar broke off the line. She rolled through the snow, her bitten shoulder taking the brunt of the landing, fortunately cushioned by the thick layer of snow.

Natasha pushed herself on her hands and knees. The creature screeched again. She stood and ran. She stumbled sideways into a tree and freaked herself out from the branches poking at her face. She continued running again. Oh, god, please let them still be in the cabin, she pleaded to no one.

* * *

 

**CABIN DEN. 4:23 AM.**

“ _Let me in! It’s coming for me! Let me in!_ ”

Pietro stood first and rushed to the door. It couldn’t be. That was impossible. Steve and Wanda followed, both of them seeming surprised as well. Pietro opened the door, and a snow-covered Natasha burst through. Steve caught her before she collapsed, and Wanda helped walk them to the couch. Pietro followed. He had so many questions, but seemingly no room to ask them.

“Oh, god, Natasha, are you okay?”

“Do I look okay?”

“Are you hurt? Your leg is bleeding!”

“Do you need anything? Food? Water?”

“The couch! Get her to the couch!”

“Stop, I can do this myself! Just give me a second to collect my thoughts.”

“Thor did this, didn’t he? He already got us.”

“No, no, there was no way this was Thor.”

“No, listen, he faked his death, and he tried to kill us!”

“No, _you’re not listening_.”

Natasha sat on the couch and leaned forward, elbows resting on her thighs and head hung low. Steve and Wanda sat on either side of her. Pietro took in her rugged appearance. It seemed she’d been having quite the evening herself.

“What happened out there?” he asked.

Natasha shook her head. “The cable car was out of use, so we went to the fire tower, and we got someone, but the tower collapsed. I was in the mines, and oh, my god, it was horrible,” she blabbed.

“Where’s Bruce?”

Natasha looked up with teary eyes. “I think he might be dead,” she said with a whimper. Steve put his hand on her forearm for comfort, but she didn’t look very comforted. Pietro didn’t blame her.

One of the doors opened in the other room. Pietro turned toward the sound and saw Tony come into the room. He let out a laugh and looked relieved. “Oh, thank god, Nat, you’re okay,” he said. “I heard screaming, and I thought…” He stopped when he found himself with an armful of Natasha.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered into his shoulder. “I don’t know where he is.” Tony didn’t say anything, just hugged her back. Again, Pietro didn’t blame them. Both Bruce and Sharon were gone, two people who meant so much to them. He couldn’t imagine losing Wanda, and didn’t want to experience it tonight.

Natasha pulled away from Tony and looked to the others. “Whatever I saw out there, it wasn’t human,” she said. “We’re not safe, and we’re not going to get out of here for a while.”

There was yet another person at the door, but this one knocked. Heavily. Everyone was alert. There was no way it was one of their friends, not even Thor. Tony moved away from Natasha, who gripped his sleeve and followed. She motioned for them to stay here. “I think I know who it is,” she said quietly. The two moved out of the room. Pietro sat down next to Wanda and took her hand. They heard the door open and Tony swearing, then Natasha and Tony returned with a third new person in tow. They removed their goggled and cloth covering their face, revealing a man with a goatee and a mustache, who looked pretty pissed at them.

“I can’t believe any of you dumbasses came back up here after last year, but you did, and now you’re all in danger because of it,” he said. He dropped his things by the fireplace and turned to them. “Why’d you come back up here? Did you have a death wish?”

“He’s the guy from the mines. He helped me,” Natasha said.

“Yeah, I saw him after Sharon was dragged away. Who’s to say you weren’t next?” Tony accused.

The stranger turned and narrowed his eye at Tony. He said, “I don’t know who the hell you’re talking about. The only people I remember getting taken away up here were Angela and Loki Olson.”

“How do you know unless you’re responsible?” Wanda asked.

“Because I’ve lived up here longer than the Olsons ‘owned’ this mountain. Except it ain’t theirs, and it sure as hell ain’t mine. This mountain belongs to the wendigo.”

“A what? You mean like the thing from _Hannibal_?” Pietro asked.

The stranger pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eye. “Can you all just sit down and shut the fuck up for two seconds so I can explain this to you? I don’t have time for you interrupting every five seconds.” Everyone sat down and waited for him to continue. “Thank you.

“The wendigo is a spirit that dwells up here, and can only be unleashed through cannibalism. For years, my forefathers have been keeping those little bastards under lock and key until a cave-in happened in the mines in the fifties. Those fuckers have been going strong ever since. One of them is stronger, larger, and a hell of a lot scarier up-close. And this one happened to be coming around last year, while you guys were fucking around up here and going outside in the middle of the night.

“I saw your friends, the boy and the girl. And I tried to help them, I really did. The wendigo beat me to them, and before I could get them, they fell off the cliff. I couldn’t save them, but I did avenge them.”

“I saw,” Natasha said. “I’m so sorry to interrupt, but I saw what you’re talking about. In the mines was their things.” Natasha opened her pocket and took out the picture and the locket. “I found Angela too. It looked like she died right away, but Loki… oh, god, he was all alone down there, and no one found him…” The other teens shared glances. The guilt just kept on piling on them.

“Thor’s still out there,” Tony said.

“Where?” the stranger asked.

“A shed not too far from here.”

He snorted. “He’s as good as dead. The wendigo already got him by now.”

“What? No, it couldn’t have! We have to go get him!”

“Have you not heard a single word I said?”

“I’ll go get him,” Pietro volunteered. The others looked skeptical. “I know where the shed is, and I can run faster than any of you. I can do this.” Natasha resigned first. She moved over and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing lightly as a sort of good luck wish. Next was Steve, then Tony. Wanda threw her arms around him and whispered for him to return safely. The stranger rolled his eye and motioned for Pietro to follow him.

A shotgun was thrust into his hand at the door. “You know how to use this?” he asked.

Pietro nodded. His aunt took them to a shooting range now and then. “Of course.”

The stranger snorted. “No, you don’t. But it doesn’t matter.” He opened the door and let Pietro through first before following. “Your gun won’t do any good. It can’t stop them.”

“It won’t? Then what _can_ kill them?”

“Fire. A shit ton of fire. Their skin is pulled tight and very tough, like leather. It’s easier to corral them instead of killing them, but you can’t just wave some catnip and wait for them to come. It takes years.”

Pietro wished he hadn’t volunteered himself to save Thor anymore. But someone had to do it, and there was no backing out now.

They approached the shed and found that Thor was missing. There was blood on the ground, and the pole and chair were broken. Who knew how long he had been gone. The stranger was at the ready with his flamethrower pointed out. There was a screech that made Pietro jump.

“Not a sound out of you, string bean,” the stranger warned. Pietro stood still. “We need to run. Now!” They bolted out the door and made it ten steps when another screech had them still again. “It’s right here, and we’re out in the open. I hope you’re as fast as you said.”

Something jumped out of nowhere and braced itself against a tree. Pietro screamed, “What the fuck is that?!” as the stranger shoved him back and doused the creature in flames. He could only assume it was the wendigo.

“Run, you fucking idiot!” the stranger snapped. He turned his head to look at Pietro, and that was when the wendigo pounced at him. He gargled and fell to his knees. Pietro gagged when the head rolled over and landed in the snow. The wendigo had only used its fingers.

Pietro stood and ran, ignoring the wendigo screeching behind him. He turned once he thought he was a safe distance and saw that no, he wasn’t, and the wendigo was right on his ass. He turned the shotgun just as it leaped at him and took the shot. It fell back against a tree and slid to the ground. Pietro didn’t take any time to marvel at it and kept going. He rolled under a fallen tree and looked again. The wendigo’s recovering time was remarkable. He shot again. The wendigo fell into the tree in a position that would surely snap any spine. Maybe he was safe.

He jumped down to the same level as the cabin. He felt his ankle crunch and gasped in pain. He couldn’t stop now. The cabin was right there. There was rustling in the trees. Oh, fuck. How was the wendigo this fast? He aimed his shotgun again and as the wendigo pounced, took the shot. It fell back, but it wasn’t enough. Pietro shot again.

He was out of rounds. His face fell. Oh, shit.

* * *

 

**CABIN LIVING ROOM. 4:44 AM.**

Wanda stepped up to the door when she heard something that sounded like Pietro. Was he okay? Was the stranger able to recover Thor?

She put her hand on the glass and saw nothing out there. A patch of snow in the distance was much lower than the rest, but that was it.

Then it hit the front porch, rolling over so it could face her. Wanda backed away. It couldn’t be.

She howled and curled into herself. She felt footsteps heading her way, then someone picking her up and moving her onto her feet. She looked again at Pietro’s head – _just_ his head – and cried out again. Tony moved her face against his jacket and told her not to look as they moved away from her brother.

* * *

 

**OLD HOTEL BASEMENT. 4:47 AM.**

“Where’s Pietro?” Steve asked as Tony moved Wanda into the basement. Tony quickly gave him a look that shut him up. Natasha stared at the floor and shook her head.

Three friends in one night. Four, assuming that Thor wasn’t there. Plus the stranger. The body count was getting too high. Tony moved Wanda in the corner, where she began rocking herself gently and murmuring nonsense. He was afraid to touch her and spook her. She would be fine after a moment. At least, he assumed. He’d only seen the aftermath, not the act itself.

Tony looked back to Steve and Natasha. Natasha had found interest with the desk and he stood behind her. “Find something interesting?”

“Yeah. Who the hell builds a tunnel that connects a cabin to a hotel _and_ a sanatorium?” she asked. She moved a few things aside from the map sitting on the desk and pointed out the tunnel.

“Maybe so the family could visit easier?” he suggested with little faith. Natasha shook her head. Tony pointed at the tunnel and added, “That was how I got back here. The door between here and the tunnel was boarded from inside the hotel. I wonder who did that.”

“Maybe the Olsons. After tonight, I’ve been wondering if they knew about this all along and chose to ignore it,” Steve said. Natasha and Tony shared a glance. They weren’t sure how to answer that. Natasha dug around in the stranger’s bag and unloaded it. Snacks. Water bottles. A few journals. Natasha pointed one of the power bars in Wanda’s direction and went to give it to her.

“We can’t sit down here for the next how-ever-many hours,” Tony said. “We’re sitting ducks for a hunter with unlimited ammo. And sticking together only makes us all easier to kill off in one fell swoop.”

“Have you never seen a horror movie? They always go for the guy who splits up from the group. And you heard Nat. We’re stuck here for now,” Steve replied.

“Well, how long?”

“I don’t know. Nat does.”

“Fine. Hey, Nat–”

“ _What is that_?” Wanda hissed. She shoved Natasha back and scooted away from her. “What is that on your shoulder?”

Natasha stood and looked at her shoulder. Tony hadn’t noticed until Wanda pointed it out that there was a huge chunk of leather missing, and blood in its place. “It’s just a bite,” she said plainly.

“What _bit you_?”

“…The wendigo.”

“Nat, are you okay? Let me look at it,” Steve said. Tony pushed him back and stepped closer.

“Is it infected? Are _you_ infected?” he asked.

“Tony, it’s a wendigo, not a zombie. That’s not how this works. You heard the guy. It’s from cannibalism,” Natasha defended.

“But wendigos are people too. Or were. And how do you know for sure that it can’t be from a bite?” Tony shot back. Natasha’s gaze hardened. She didn’t know at all. “Nat, I don’t feel safe with you down here. You should… you should go.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Natasha looked to Wanda, who was cradling her head in the next corner.

“Guys, let’s not send Nat out to the wolves,” Steve said.

“Yeah, let’s not fucking get me killed over some presumption. Look, I’m sure I can find some proof in here,” Natasha said. She waved a journal in the air before scanning through it. Her brows furrowed as she looked, and even Tony could tell she was starting to lose faith in herself.

Slowly, he raised the gun he’d been holding at her. Steve moved to stop him but Tony held out his free hand. Wanda went quiet. Natasha hadn’t noticed for a few page flips, but jumped and pushed herself back against the wall when she did.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” she said. “We’ve already lost four friends tonight. There’s only four of us left.”

“I don’t want to add myself to that list, Nat. And I’m sure Steve and Wanda agree with me. It’s for the safety of the group. This is the safe space,” Tony insisted.

“So you’ll throw my name on the list? I can’t believe – look, just give me two seconds, and I can prove that you’re wrong!” Natasha flipped through the pages furiously to find proof. Tony kept the gun aimed at her head, his hands shaking. He didn’t know which was scarier – shooting Nat or leaving her to turn on them.

“Tony, think about it. Killing Nat won’t solve any of our problems. She’s the only one who knows when someone’s coming for us. Plus, that still leaves us trapped up here,” Steve said. Tony’s hands shook even more.

“Aha! See! These bites are not infectious! The stranger has several documented!” Natasha exclaimed. She thrust the book in Tony’s face. Neither looked calm, but Tony at least looked convinced. “Now you can point the gun away.”

Tony nodded and pointed the gun away. He tucked it in his pocket, right by his machete. Then the realization washed over him. _He almost shot Natasha._ “Nat, I’m _so_ sorry.”

“When we get out of this, I’m going to kick your ass. But for now, let’s worry about right here and right now.” Natasha relaxed her position and took a deep breath. “I was able to make contact with someone at the fire tower. I’m not sure who, but they said they’d be here at dawn to help us, once the storm subsides. The fire tower, however, is now in the mines, so that’s a bust. And the cable car is locked and dangling on the cords too far for any of us to reach. The only one with a key is Thor. So we’re not going anywhere for the next three or so hours. We might as well get comfy down here.”

“Fuck that,” Tony said. “We can just get the key from Thor.”

“He’s probably down in the mines with the wendigo. I saw the mines pretty thoroughly. It must live down there. You’d be fighting it on its home turf. Do you really want to fight that fight instead of waiting a few hours?”

“Even if it means taking that key from its claws in its own bedroom, yes.” Tony started backwards for the door. “You guys just stay put. I’ll find the key and get us out of here. Hey, maybe I’ll even find Thor. Who knows?”

Natasha opened her mouth to tell him exactly why everything he just said was a bad idea, but Steve spoke first, saying, “Just be careful out there, okay? I don’t want to have to mourn another friend tonight.”

Tony nodded. “I will.” He opened and shut the door and gave his friends a small wave. Steve waved back. Tony turned and headed back for the sanatorium, ready to get the fuck off this demented mountain for good.


	10. Chapter 9

**SANATORIUM. 5:03 AM. TWO HOURS UNTIL DAWN.**

The first thing Tony did was to lock the door behind him. He didn’t want anyone following him. Wanda and Natasha had been traumatized enough for one night, and Steve didn’t need to have an asthma attack right now. They can wait in the hotel basement and be patient while he retrieved Thor.

_If_ he retrieved Thor. With tonight’s track record, he wasn’t counting on finding his old friend. The odds seemed to be against them tonight. Bruce, Sharon, Pietro – Thor was most like going to join them on the other side. Tony was prepared to join them too. This was a suicide mission. Oh, well, there was no turning back now. As long as the others were okay, he was fine with this. Hopefully Rhodey and Pepper would move on.

Tony walked down the hall, and he could only imagine how this place got shittier in the last few hours. Sure, it wasn’t in mint condition when he got here, but now it looked like a tornado blew through since he was gone. The main corridor was in much worse condition. One of the staircases and the cement wall above it had collapsed completely. Without the security card, he was stuck inside, with the path cut off by a gated door. He looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling on the other side. There was his way in. He climbed up the nondefunct stairs and dropped through. There. The easiest part of his mission was now done. And he got a gift for making it this far: a torch, a shotgun, and a box of ammo. Two handfuls of ammo were pocketed, and shotgun carried, and the torch lit to light the way. The next door was locked as well. His shotgun was now his new security key, and the door was shot open. Easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.

Once he was through he heard a quiet growl. Tony looked down and saw the wolf from before, the one he’d given a bone to. He kneeled and held out his hand to see what would happen. The wolf sniffed his fingers, then licked them and rubbed its head against him.

“Nice to see you to, buddy,” Tony said. Now he could see why his cousin wanted one so bad. They were great animals. Tony stood back up and the wolf led him through the sanatorium. Hopefully the wolf knew the layout better than he did from the few moments he’d looked at the map. It led them to a gated tunnel that took them to what appeared to be another wing of the sanatorium. Well, it was a start.

“You need a name. How ‘bout Peggy?” It made sense. Aunt Peggy was always there to guide him when he was younger, kind of like the wolf. The wolf sneezed in response. It was official. Peggy the wolf. Wolf-Peggy.

Inside the other building, there was a lingering smell of rotting flesh. Tony held a hand over his nose and prayed that it wasn’t one of his friends. When he saw a wolf hanging up with its stomach cut open and organs on display for the world, Wolf-Peggy whined. Tony pet its head and moved it along. No reason to stare at your dead friend. He’d done too much of that already tonight.

Tony squeezed into a corridor that was nearly pitch black without a single light source. Further in, a distant window was casting light onto an old projector with a film reel in it. Tony played it, curious about what kind of movies they showed in sanatoriums. A file sitting nearby caught his eye. He began reading it, about a patient that was showing unusual signs of attacking nurses and other patients. This patient’s body had transformed with elongating limbs and torso and more prominent, sharp teeth, while the skin tightened around its body. Tony looked up at the film. A patient was strapped down and left in front of the camera, before it broke itself free and crawled up the wall and out of sight. A nurse returned, only to be lifted out of view from the patient above her. The film went to black.

So these wendigoes were not new. This sanatorium had specialized in helping them. Well, it _tried_ , but not many people give credit for effort. Tony put down the file and went back to looking for Thor. Wolf-Peggy stayed by his side dutifully once he entered the main hall again, and led him into the next room.

Little noises could be heard now and then, but nothing that had Tony ready to shoot something in the face. Wolf-Peggy also had no concern for whatever was going on, just led Tony like it was a normal night. For the wolf, it was probably used to there being wendigoes and what-not up on the mountain. It also probably didn’t care about how disgusting the inside of the sanatorium was, or the mold growing all over the walls. It did come to a stop at one point, and Tony thought nothing of it. Wolf-Peggy was a wolf. Wolves did as they pleased.

A box fell, and Tony jumped. A rat scurried out, and Tony had a moment of relief… until he looked up from where the rat ran and saw a wendigo perched on the table, screeching at him. Tony shouted and quickly shot at it as it leapt for him. The wendigo flew back and hit the ground. Tony ran through with Wolf-Peggy running ahead of him. He could hear the wendigo recovering. They hid in the closest room. Tony barricaded the door as a last-minute effort to stop it from getting through. The wendigo poked its head through the broken window on the door and screeched. Tony remembered his machete hanging from his pants and grabbed it. He struck the wendigo with it before running into the next room, where Wolf-Peggy was already waiting. He locked this door behind him. He knew that would do absolutely nothing, but the sentiment of a locked door gave him relief.

Tony pet Wolf-Peggy’s head and motioned her to follow as he crouched and crawled behind the tables. He heard a wendigo coming in, screeching and trying to spot him, from the other side, as his luck would have it. He peeked around the other side of the table to see the second wendigo, then quickly ducked away and kept still as it turned its head toward him. He heard a bottle rolling and caught it before it crashed. He looked again when the wendigo jumped across the room. He slowly moved around the next table as the wendigo jumped to the other side of the room. He ran out into the hall and turned the corner. He took a moment to calm himself (or, more accurately, not pee himself in fear). Wolf-Peggy licked its paw.

Once he was mentally ready, Tony walked down the new corridor. He found himself in what he thought would be bedrooms but were more accurately prison cells. Each one was equipped with a dirty toilet and a cot attached to the wall, with the doors ripped from the foundation. He guessed the less-sane prisoners were kept in here. A secluded mountain made the most sense.

A wet growl came from the left, and Tony jumped back just as a wendigo’s hand came through the bars of an intact cell door. Tony shot it, and it cowered into the corner. It seemed that the stranger had found use in these. The shotgun was held up and pointed at every cell. Every few cells had a hand that reached for his head or ankle. One was broken open, but the wendigo that leapt out and tried gnawing Tony’s nose had a collar around its neck attached to a chain. It was shot at as well as the chain yanked it back into darkness. Tony couldn’t imagine how hard it had to be to chain that one. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some shells he’d grabbed on a whim (thankfully) and loaded his gun again. Another screech came, this time from one of the non-contained wendigoes jumping outside the cells toward him, and Tony took off running. Wolf-Peggy ran ahead and reached the end of the hall first, turning to bark at the wendigo. Tony tried pushing the door open but it didn’t budge far enough for him. He let Wolf-Peggy through and looked back at the wendigo. He shot at it and was about to let himself out when another wendigo dropped in from the ceiling. Fuck. He looked around and noticed an oil barrel. He rolled it down toward the wendigoes and shot it. It blew up and knocked him back. He sat up to see the wendigoes (and a large chunk of the sanatorium) were destroyed. He finally got through to the other room and locked the door behind him.

“This is too fucking much,” he said to no one in particular. He looked up to see Wolf-Peggy giving him what he decided was a sympathetic look. It licked his face twice.  Tony reloaded the gun, then pulled himself onto his feet and continued his trek, though by now he was more focused on saving his own ass than finding Thor.

The next door at the end of the next hall had a lock on it. Tony had two seconds to wonder how he would resolve that when another fucking wendigo came into the picture. He shot the lock, then the wendigo, then pushed into the next room. He, again, barricaded the door, for nothing other than two seconds of sated sanity. The gun was reloaded, and Tony dropped through the floor into the lower level. He held his arms out for Wolf-Peggy, who whined and backed away.

“Yeah, you should get out before it’s too late,” he muttered. He didn’t blame he wolf for getting the hell out now. It probably knew the way out.

Tony saw a door that led to outside and ran out excitedly. His happiness, as expected, was short-lived when the wendigo from a minute ago returned. He shot at it as a second wendigo appeared. He looked around and saw that the room was overflowing with oil barrels. He aimed his gun at one of the clusters of barrels and pulled the trigger.

* * *

 

**MINES. 5:10 AM.**

Sharon woke up and sat up quickly, then regretted that as pain blossomed through her chest. She coughed congealed blood onto her jeans and moaned in pain. With shaky legs, she rose to her feet. Miraculously, her spine wasn’t broken and her head wasn’t cracked. She didn’t know the full extent of her injuries, but she didn’t need a mirror to know that she looked like hell. She limped over to a jacket hanging on the wall and put it on. She rubbed her arms in vain trying to warm up.

In the distance, an indescribable noise rang out. Sharon turned her head toward it and clutched her jacket closer around her. Where the fuck was she?

* * *

 

**CONNECTING TUNNEL. 5:16 AM.**

Wanda hugged herself as she followed Natasha and Steve through the basement. They should’ve waited in the room like Tony said so. No, scratch that. They should be getting Pietro and bringing him inside so he didn’t get cold. Pietro hated the cold. That was why he was wearing so many layers tonight. Wanda sniffled at the thought and tried to keep up. She started swaying to the right and didn’t notice until she bumped against the wall. She pushed herself off and trudged onward.

Natasha and Steve stopped walking and talked to each other in hushed voices, occasionally glancing at Wanda. She wasn’t sure if they were talking about her, or if they were making sure she didn’t wander off. Either way, she ignored them. The hatch on the floor caught her eye, and she turned the wheel. She pushed off whoever tried to move her away and opened it. Nothing jumped out and tried to eat them. She looked at them and pointed down.

“But that’s the door,” Steve said, placing his hand on Wanda’s shoulder and squeezing while smiling. Wanda brushed him off and pointed again.

“It’s locked,” Natasha announced. Wanda and Steve watched as she pushed against the door. It didn’t budge. Tony had to have locked it behind him. Wanda pointed again and tugged on Steve’s sleeve. He nodded and descended down the hatch. Natasha encouraged her to go next, and she did, with Steve there to make sure she didn’t trip at the bottom. Natasha was right behind them. Steve pulled a flashlight from his pocket and turned it on.

“Let’s hope he didn’t get too far. And that he found Thor,” Steve said, before leading the way. Natasha followed. Wanda took up the rear. It was much more humid in the underground, like they were in a cave.

That’s when she heard it. It was faint, but the voice was unrecognizable. Wanda turned her head to the left as Steve and Natasha went to the right. The cries of their friend.

“Sharon,” she whispered.

Natasha and Steve stopped walking and looked back at her. “What?” Natasha asked.

“Sharon. I hear her! She’s crying out for help!”

Natasha stepped closer. “Wanda, you’re very exhausted, and tonight has been… you’re just hearing things.”

“No, I’m not! I hear Sharon! She needs us!”

“Sharon’s gone,” Steve deadpanned. He clenched his fist and jaw. Wanda wanted to keep on insisting, but they wouldn’t be convinced, she knew it.

“I think Wanda and I should hang back. We’ve been through too much tonight. Go get Tony and bring him back so the rescue crew can get us the fuck out of here,” Natasha told Steve. He nodded and walked on ahead. Natasha took Wanda’s hands in hers. “Maybe you can get a nap while we wait. I’ll keep an eye out for the boys. This will all be over soon. I promise.”

“But… but I heard… I _heard_ her,” Wanda said with a whimper.

“We’ve all heard and seen some messed up shit tonight. Let’s just pretend we haven’t, okay?”

Wanda’s body fought against her with a powerful yawn. She nodded sleepily and followed Natasha.

* * *

 

**MINES. 5:35 AM.**

Steve rubbed his hands together and let out a huff before starting his ascent up the rock wall. Sure, he loved rock climbing with Sam and Bucky (and hell, that was how he and Sam met), but he was tired from this. He was tired from doing anything and everything tonight.

All of them seemed to be looking death in the face repeatedly, and at this point, he wondered if he should just give in. Let death win this time. By now, it was already looking bleak for everyone. Maybe if death claimed him, she would spare the others. Natasha, Tony, and Wanda would get rescued in an hour and would tell everyone what happened up here over the last few hours. Maybe they’ll sue the police department for doing a shitty job of searching the mountain last year and pay off college and student loan debts with the money they’re paid. Maybe this would all end soon, because otherwise Steve was going to pass out from exhaustion.

He pulled himself up onto the surface and took a second to rest his arms before standing and walking up a flight of stairs. They split to go straight and to the right. Steve decided to go straight, to lessen any confusion in case he had to run from these wendigoes. As he walked on, a shovel came into view. He grabbed it, in case he needed to whack someone with it. You never know when a shovel can come in handy as a weapon.

Before Steve could reach the end of the mine and open the door leading out, Tony burst through, an aflame wendigo gripping his shirt with its claws. Steve almost had a heart attack, and went with his gut reaction: swing. He swung at the wendigo as Tony fell on his stomach, beheading the creature and knocking it off his friend. Tony crawled away from its burning corpse and straightened out his clothes, which were now noticeably singed.

“Thanks a million, man,” Tony said.

“What the hell happened to you?” Steve asked.

“Oh, the norm. Just blew up a sanatorium full of wendigoes and oil barrels, that’s all. Not finding Thor anywhere.”

Steve nodded and looked around. Where could Thor be anyway? The guy was beyond impossible to find, and these mines were beyond impossible to navigate singlehandedly. But he wasn’t alone down here. He had Tony, the engineering and physics major who made maps and diagrams all the time for leisure, who could help him.

“Let’s just find him and call it a night,” Steve said.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Tony agreed.

* * *

 

**OLD HOTEL BASEMENT. 5:55 AM.**

Natasha rubbed Wanda’s shoulder as she finally fell asleep. The poor girl had been through too much tonight. She needed sleep more than the rest of them combined. She had two near-death experiences and lost her brother all in the course of six hours. If Natasha was in her shoes, she’d ask to be put in a week-long coma to let her mind recover. Then lose her shit once she woke up and realized that it wasn’t one huge, elaborate prank.

Natasha saw Wanda’s phone peeking out of her sweater pocket, and against her better judgment, took it out. The phone lit up with forty-five percent battery left, and a very weak signal. Her heart raced. Any signal was good enough.

Who did she call? Her own parents would go flying off the handle and do everything wrong to deal with the situation. Wanda’s parents would want to know about Pietro, and Natasha didn’t want to be the bearer of such news. Clint wasn’t going to pick up at this hour. Natasha closed her eyes and thought long and hard. Only one person would stay rational and be careful on how to help her. And they were the only person to wake up at such an ungodly hour on a daily basis. Plus, they were one of Wanda’s contacts.

On the fourth ring, Sam answered. “ _What’s going on, Wanda?_ ” he asked. He didn’t even sound like he just woke up, the lucky bastard. That wasn’t important right now.

“Sam, it’s me,” Natasha said.

“ _Nat? Why’re you calling me on Wanda’s phone? How’s the mountain?_ ”

“Fucked up. It’s all fucked up.”

“ _Whoa, what’s wrong?_ ”

“I don’t know where to begin. Thor brought us up here for some twisted revenge game, and now we’re being hunted by these cannibals! No one’s coming to get us until dawn, but I don’t think we’ll make it that far tonight.”

“ _Are you serious? Are you okay? Did they hurt you?_ ”

Natasha shook her head, despite knowing Sam couldn’t see her. “Physically, yes. Wanda’s with me. She just fell asleep. Tony and Steve are trying to find Thor, and we don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“ _And the others?_ ”

She sniffled. “I don’t know where Bruce is. Tony says one of those cannibals got Sharon. And Pietro… oh, god, Pietro’s dead.” Natasha wiped away her tears and tried not to wake up Wanda.

“ _Okay, Nat. That’s really, really fucked up. Listen, whatever you need me to do, I’ll do it. Just let me know._ ”

“Just please, _please_ get to the police station. Force them to come get us. Get everyone down there now. Our parents, our friends, just get there. At the very least, you can identify our bodies.”

“ _Don’t talk like that, Nat. You’re not going to die. I’ll kill these cannibals if they even think about touching you. Oh, shit, I woke Bucky up._ ”

“James is there with you?” Natasha’s heart raced at the thought of her best friend/ex-boyfriend being there. The thought of him being far away from here made her feel better. Someone who would make sure her obituary and funeral made her look flattering. Someone who would make sure Bruce moved on from her.

“ _Yeah. Here, you keep on talking to him, and I’ll call everyone on the landline. Hold up a second…_ ” Natasha heard rustling, with Sam and Bucky talking briefly before a door was slammed shut.

“ _Natalia? Are you okay?_ ” Bucky asked.

Again, Natasha shook her head. She didn’t bother stopping the tears this time. “This is all our fault, James. If we didn’t find Loki’s journal, none of this would be happening,” she sobbed.

“ _Don’t talk like that. You didn’t make Loki run outside. You didn’t make Thor do whatever it is he did._ ” There was a pause. “ _Just in case something happens – and I mean it, because I refuse for you guys not to be here in two hours completely intact – then I’ll tell everyone what happened. Start from the beginning. I have my paper and pencil ready. I’ll make sure the world knows._ ”

Natasha let out a laugh. She absent-mindedly started running her fingers through Wanda’s hair. “Okay, James. Let me be clear when I say that I knew from the get-go that something was wrong and that Thor had something to do with it…”


	11. Chapter 10

**MINES. 6:10 AM. ONE HOUR UNTIL DAWN.**

The underground pool was stunning. A running water wheel made for a lovely backdrop with the glistening water. Steve vainly wanted to take pictures to draw later. This was the kind of work that you saw in museums and on postcards. Only if it wasn’t in the place where most of his friends were being attacked and killed would he find it more appealing.

“It’s so romantic,” he said breathily.

“I know. I could see myself screwing Pepper here,” Tony added. Steve made a face. “What? Mad that I didn’t say your name?”

“Dude…”

“Sorry if I want to have sex again before I die. Sue me for being sexual.”

“I don’t care about that. You’re being extremely crude again.”

“Careful, Steve. You’re inner grandma is showing.”

Steve rolled his eyes. He looked at the lake again. “How much do you wanna bet that Thor is on the other side?” he asked.

“Nothing, because we both know he is. I just hope you didn’t bring anything valuable, because chances are you’re getting wet.” Tony winked before moving to slide into the pool. Steve held his tongue and followed.

His first thought was _holy fucking shit it’s freezing_. He was surprised that the water wasn’t frozen over. Tony hissed ever few seconds as they waded through the water. Steve tried to think of it as an ice bath to relieve his tense muscles, but the cold was getting to his brain much faster, and all he wanted to do was get the hell out of here.

Steve looked and saw a patch of land behind the water wheel. He paused, contemplating whether or not he should explore it.

“Steve! Let’s go before we get hypothermia on top of our frostbite!” Tony exclaimed. Steve couldn’t find a good reason to argue against that (on top of finding Thor as soon as possible so they could get the hell out of dodge) and trudged behind Tony. They pulled themselves out of the water shivering their asses off.

“Wanna hug for warmth? I hear it’s better with your clothes off,” Tony suggested with a cheeky grin, his teeth clattering as he talked.

“Can you go five minutes without hitting on me?” Steve asked.

“You know, Pepper appreciates my lines.”

“Because she’s dating you and it helps your ego.”

Tony stuck out his tongue childishly. Steve elected to ignore it and forced himself to continue moving instead of wallowing in self-pity about being wet and freezing.

In the next room, both boys stopped in their tracks when they looked at the floor. Two heads sat there staring at them with blank, dead expressions: the stranger and Pietro. Tony looked up first and gagged. Steve’s eyes followed. The stranger was hanging closest to them, with Pietro’s further past it, both with meat hooks going through their necks. Their rotten flesh filled the boys’ nostrils. Steve rubbed Tony’s back, hoping it’d stop him from vomiting everywhere.

“We’re horrible people,” Tony said. “This is all our fault.” Steve couldn’t tear his eyes away from Pietro’s body long enough to convince Tony otherwise. He was starting to agree with them. Good people didn’t get Pietro, Angela, and Loki killed. Complete dickheads like Tony and Steve did.

“Let’s keep moving,” Steve muttered.

“I can’t…”

“Here.” Steve pulled Tony against him, holding Tony’s head against his chest so he couldn’t look at their dead friend and ally, and guided them out of the room without brushing against the bodies or detached heads. Thank god Wanda and Natasha weren’t here to look at them. Wanda would be devastated to see this.

“None of this would’ve happened if we hadn’t pulled that stupid prank on Loki last year,” Tony said into Steve’s chest.

“‘We’? Oh, no, don’t drag _me_ into this. I didn’t have any part in it,” Steve said defensively.

“Oh, please. If you actually wanted to stop Loki from opening the door, you would’ve stayed outside the door and waited for him to come so you could pull him away first. Did you really think you’d walk into him by looking yourself? The cabin is huge!” Steve pushed his finger against a pressure point in Tony’s shoulder. “Fuck! Watch it! Don’t act like I’m not telling the truth!”

“Let’s just focus on surviving, okay? All I want to do is make sure you guys make it out of here alive by dawn.”

Tony stopped and peered up at Steve without moving his head away from the other boy. “What about you?” he asked.

“I’ll worry about myself after I make sure you guys are okay,” Steve answered.

“Well, only one of us can play the sacrificial hero role, and I thought I was a shoe-in for it. You know, the whole asshole-guy-saves-everyone-but-himself sort of gimmick. The All-American hero is supposed to make it to the end. You’re the one everyone’s rooting for. I’m the guy the audience want to bite the dust.”

“We’re Canadian, Tony.”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

Steve sighed and started walking again. Tony tripped a bit trying to stay in step this time. “We’ll worry about that only if we end up in between a rock and a hard place.”

“Right now, I’m stuck between a rock and your hard place – OW, quit hurting me, you prick!”

Steve stopped when he heard a familiar voice. Tony recognized it as well and moved his head away from Steve’s chest. “Was that Thor?”

* * *

 

**MINES. 6:00 AM.**

Thor woke up in a daze. He had no idea where he was, how he got here, who he was… everything was a blur. Nothing made sense. Right was north, down was west, and he had no friends left. He didn’t blame them for tying him outside in the shed and accusing him of murder. He made himself look like a true serial killer. He’d blame himself too.

He could hear Loki and Angela’s voices, their sweet gentle singing of Norse lullabies their mother sang to them whenever one of them had a nightmare. They sung in a round, with Angela leading, and the occasional giggle from one of his siblings. Except they were dead, and they couldn’t be here singing to him.

“Don’t you see what you’ve done to yourself, Thor? This deep pit you’ve dug yourself into without considering the consequences? No one is going to throw a rope or ladder down to you,” Dr. Foster said, leaning against the rock and writing down on the wall with chalk. Her notes were all tally marks. She was only wearing her tacky red heels. They’d met for months, and the last few months’ worth of sessions were nothing but sex. Not to say he didn’t love their “sessions”, but it was very distracting from the fact that she had no reason to be in this place.

“It’s not my fault,” Thor insisted.

“But isn’t it?” Dr. Foster leaned forward, further distracting Thor. As sexy as he found it, this was extremely out of character for the psychiatrist.

“No.” Because it wasn’t, and she wouldn’t tell him it was.

Loki and Angela continued singing.

Thor backed away from his couldn’t-be-here doctor against the very soft rock wall behind him. He jumped away from the wall, its red flesh pumping like a heart. Thor touched its gooey surface, and guts and blood spilled out. He screamed as it stained his hands. An arm emerged from the tear in the surface. Thor stepped back, hugging himself and whimpering. Angela stepped out of the surface, coated in red, smiling at her brother with blank, fully-white eyes. Loki came after her, snarling at Thor.

“You didn’t come for us, brother,” Angela accused.

“I didn’t know! If I knew, I swear, I would have stopped them from going through with it!” Thor pleaded.

Loki snarled again.

“You could have saved us. We wouldn’t be dead if you had come for us,” Angela continued. “Why did you want us to die?”

“Come here, Thor. I can make it all go away,” Dr. Foster said, pressing her bare breasts against his arm. Thor shoved her away and backed from the trio.

“I didn’t want you to die! I swear, I would have saved you!” Thor cried. He swung again at the others. Angela and Dr. Foster backed away, but Loki was persistent.

“You would only save yourself, _brother_. You would step over our bloodied corpses with your largest boots without a care in the world.”

“No! Y-you stay back!” Thor swung again. Loki’s body began growing, his limbs getting longer, his fingers sharper, his skin tighter, and his teeth sticking out between rotting lips.

“Join us, brother,” Loki hissed.

“Go away! You’re not real! You’re not here! You’re dead!”

Loki leaned in and screamed a thousand screams in his face, many sounding vaguely like, “ _And soon you will be too._ ”

_SLAP!_

Thor’s head whipped to the side, where the walls were now rock, and his sister and naked therapist were gone. He turned back to see that Loki was now Tony, whom he had slapped – no, _punched_ , based on the closed fist – him out of his nightmare. Behind Tony was Steve, whom showed such concern that Thor didn’t believe he deserved. Not from them, the friend he had hurt so dearly in his sadistic revenge plot.

“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Tony said. Thor cringed. Horrible choice of words.

“Do not strike me again,” he said shakily.

Tony rolled his eyes and helped pull Thor to his feet. When had he fallen down? “C’mon, big guy. We’re gonna get you out of here.”

“Damn it,” Steve swore. Thor looked to see he had wandered farther into the mines, looking up at an opening, he assumed. “This is the only other exit. Looks like you’re bringing him out the way we came.”

“Why me?” Tony whined.

“Because you can’t climb, and Thor’s in no position to mentally.”

“But – I – but Steve – ah, fuck. Fine.” Tony tugged on Thor’s arm again. “I hope you’re up for a swim, big guy. It’s a bit chilly, but it’s not too bad if you rush the hell through there.” Thor followed Tony, briefly glancing back to see Steve making his way up the wall.

“Are you going to lock me away after we leave?” Thor asked Tony.

Tony shrugged. “We’ll let the feds and your mom decide. I’m sure the video evidence against you will have some say. Personally, you don’t want to know my opinion, but I’m sure Wanda is never going to accept you _not_ being in the big house,” he answered.

“Does she hate me?”

“…The thing is, she’s gonna have to direct her anger at someone, and you fit the bill. Oh, you might want to look down.”

Thor looked up, as human instinct would have him, and gaped in horror at the two bodies hanging from the ceiling. One was a stranger’s that he didn’t recognize. The other, based on the many layers, had to be Pietro’s. He let out a strangled sob that had Tony looking at him funny.

“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt,” Thor whimpered.

“Yeah. None of us did,” Tony agreed.

“Tony, I want you to know that I _swear_ , I have no idea where Sharon is–”

“I know, man. I don’t know where she is, either. Tonight’s just been one wild ride from start to finish.”

Outside the room and away from the dead bodies, Tony dropped into a pool of water. Thor hesitated but followed. He kept his arms high and tried not to shiver too hard. He waded after Tony at a distance, wanting to see where he’d been dragged off to.

“Oh–!” Tony was suddenly underwater, and something hideous and grey popped up, screaming in Thor’s face. Thor panicked and tried backing away. All the creature did was reach out and grab him by the neck, holding him up.

That’s when he noticed it. The serpent going up the left side of the creature. He recognized that serpent in a second.

“Loki? Brother?” Thor asked. The creature screamed in his face again. “Brother, don’t!” Thor screamed as both of the creature’s – _his brother’s_ – hands squeezed his head with all its might.

* * *

 

**MINES. 6:24 AM.**

Bruce looked at his phone one last time. It was on seven percent, but he had to read Natasha’s text message again. He tried calling her once his phone received it, but he was sent straight to voicemail. He assumed (prayed) her phone had died. But she hadn’t died from the tower. She was always much tougher than he treated her. She would never go down this easy. She was also much more clever than he was, and was probably already out of the mines. With the exception of a thirty minute nap he took in a tiny alcove hidden from whoever or whatever else was down here, he’d been looking for an exit for hours. His lack of sleep, food, water, and his rapidly depleting mental state were helping contribute as to why it was taking him so damn long.

He tucked his phone in his pocket when he came across a lantern with a set of matches. He lit it and smiled at his own progress. Now he could hold on to that little bit of phone life for another ten or so minutes. He turned to continue looking for an exit when he found a shovel being swung at him. His arm shot out to block the swing, and the shovel was dropped. Bruce gasped when he saw that Sharon was the one to swing at him.

“Sharon? Holy shit, you’re okay?” he asked. Sharon shook her head. Bruce quickly pulled her in for a hug. She was the first person he’d seen in four hours, and as far as he knew, possibly the only other person alive. He pulled away when she cried out pathetically. “Fuck, Share, you look like hell.”

“I feel like it too,” Sharon teased. She smiled weakly at herself, then furrowed her brows. “Are you alone? Where’s Nat?”

“Hopefully she’s far from here. Where’s Tony?”

“I don’t know. We were in the little cabin, and we thought someone was outside, then… then… I was being dragged out the window.”

“Oh, god, Sharon…” Both of them jumped as a screech rang out. “Look, let’s get the fuck out of here and find some help, okay?”

“Fine with me.” Sharon and Bruce held hands and walked quickly (though it was more of Bruce dragging Sharon behind him). Another screech, this one much closer. Bruce looked to his left and saw a tiny hiding spot. He pulled Sharon in and held her against him. She let out a pained sigh, but when the sound of something creeping near them came and went past them, she went eerily still. Bruce squeezed his eyes shut. He didn’t want to know what it was after them.

Once it sounded like the coast was clear, Bruce yanked Sharon out of their hiding spot and started running down the mine hall. Sharon held her hand over her mouth to keep from making noise. Bruce looked and saw the rest of the hall was too long of a stretch. He knocked on the wooden wall they’d come across before throwing himself at it. He broke through, and the creature was clearly right behind them again. He and Sharon shimmied outside along the non-broken wood and held their breaths. The creature poked its head out, grey and rotten, and looked everywhere but where they were. It screeched before going back inside.

Bruce exhaled. Sharon slid down into a sitting position, and he joined her. Outside, where the sun was starting to rise, he could see her injuries better. Her face, neck, and chest were covered in gashes and blood. Her eyes looked bruised and puffy. Her eyes seemed to have trouble focusing on what was in front of her. Bruce could tell there were other injuries, but he didn’t want to examine her for them. They both needed to rest.

“Bruce, look,” Sharon said, pointing out. Bruce looked up, and in the distance, he could see two black dots heading their way. Planes, helicopters, _something_ that meant rescue.

* * *

 

**OUTSIDE THE MINES. 6:36.**

The second Steve reached the top of the rock wall, he could hear screaming. Some of it was from the wendigo, but the rest was human. It had to be Thor or Tony. He broke into a sprint, desperately and vainly wanting to reach the cabin before the wendigo came after him. When he reached a pond, he dove in and came out at the other side, not wanting to waste time on wading through. Wendigoes wouldn’t wait for him to be done. They’d behead him without hesitation.

At the cabin door, before he could move to open it, something grabbed onto his shoulder. Steve screamed and was about to shove off whoever it was when Tony quickly let go. “Fuck, Steve!” he shouted. Tony opened the door and pushed Steve in ahead of him before closing the doors behind him. “What the fuck was that?”

“I thought you were a wendigo,” Steve admitted. He started taking deep breaths, trying to prevent an asthma attack from starting. He sat on a couch and continued taking deep breaths. Tony sat on a different on, arms resting on his thighs and head hanging low. “Tony? Where’s Thor?”

“Take a wild guess,” Tony replied bitterly. Steve didn’t have to ask what he meant. “And it turns out we know the wendigo. It’s Loki.”

“What?”

“Think about it. Nat said that Angela died but Loki didn’t. If he was down there alone, chances are he was starving enough to do whatever it took for survival. Sister or not, meat is meat when you’re desperate,” Tony continued. “And wendigoes come from cannibals.”

“But how do you know it’s Loki?” Steve asked.

“Thor was shouting his name right before his head was crushed between Loki’s hands. Popped like a paint-filled balloon.”

Steve grimaced. That was imagery he could have lived without. He shook his head at the thought of Thor being killed by his own family. “We’re not gonna make it, are we?”

“Don’t think like that, Steve,” Tony scolded. “You and I made it this far. Wanda and Nat should be downstairs. Let’s go get them and wait out the next half-hour for rescue. They should be here soon, right?”

“Okay.” Steve stood up and followed Tony to the stairs. He started limping from his sore and tightening muscles. He’d spent most of tonight running and climbing without taking much time for rest and replenishing. His body was going to wind up punishing him at some time.

In the basement, as they entered the theater, Steve asked, “How do you rate our chances of survival?”

“Trying not to think about that,” Tony replied.

There was a screech that had Tony and Steve both looking up. Natasha and Wanda were barreling down the hall, the former pulling along the latter. “Run! You gotta run now!” Natasha shouted as they ran past. Tony didn’t hesitate following. Steve looked to see three wendigoes coming down the hall. He pulled the door shut and ran after his friends. He couldn’t hear his friends ahead of him as he made his way up the stairs, and he wrongly assumed they were outside. He ran around toward the cabin door when he froze.

A fourth wendigo was up here, hanging from the second floor balcony. Tony was standing on the other side of the stairs leading to the second floor. He couldn’t see Nat or Wanda at all, but assumed they were somewhere out of the way.

“Don’t you dare fucking move,” Tony hissed at Steve. Steve obeyed and stood statue still.

The scurrying of the other wendigoes came from next to him. They all stood on the stairs, eyes on the much larger, non-clothed wendigo, whom jumped down and stood towering over them. One jumped at the larger, and was thrown at the fireplace. Another was thrown aside, and the third was thrown into the stairs, against the floor, and had its head ripped off. The wendigo moved after the other two, all of them screeching and sizing the others up.

Steve looked to Tony, who wasn’t looking back at him or at the wendigoes. He followed the other’s line of vision to the fireplace. The gas was still running, the smell starting to reach Steve. Tony then looked at a lightbulb. Steve assumed he was looking at the mercury. Then they both looked at the light switch, by the farthest door and where Nat and Wanda were currently inching their way towards and out of, which would set off this bomb that Tony was aiming to make. The boys shared a glance and a nod. This silent plan was set into motion.

Steve began backing away from the wendigoes when his sneakers hit a creak in the floor. The largest wendigo turned toward him, looking for the source and its next victim. Steve went still, but his eyes followed Tony, who was by the lightbulb. He squeezed it and broke the bulb. The wendigo turned to Tony.

Steve looked back at the girls just as they ran from the cabin.

Tony wasn’t moving, but the wendigo was starting to close in on him. Steve panicked and shouted, “Hey!” The wendigo screeched and turned back to him. It stalked closer.

One of the remaining wendigoes jumped onto the large one, distracting it. Steve took the chance to hide behind a pillar. The wendigo spotted that, and soon Steve saw its face near his. Steve looked down and saw a tattoo running up its side. He held in a gasp. Tony was right. This _was_ Loki.

Wendigo-Loki stalked away, bored without a moving target. Steve waited until it wasn’t looking before moving to his next hiding spot. He didn’t move a hair as the wendigo leaned in, its face inches from his. He closed his eyes so he didn’t have to look at it. It screeched right into his ear. Steve was surprised he wasn’t deafened by it.

When he heard Wendigo-Loki move away, Steve took his chance. He bolted for the door, ignoring whatever may be coming after him. Tony was standing right outside the door, posed to turn on the light switch. He ran when he saw Steve was coming his way and very close. Steve flipped the light switch, and he felt the explosion as it propelled him and Tony thirty feet forward into the snow.

It took Steve a few moments to move. He pushed himself onto his hands and knees, then to his feet, and tried to balance himself. Tony caught him as he started to fall over again. Steve looked over to see Natasha checking on Wanda.

It was over. They had survived the night and made it to dawn. The storm clouds had left the sky altogether as pillars of smoke blocked out the sunrise. The burning cabin looked so beautiful for everything horrible that had happened in there.

“We made it,” he said in astonishment.

“Don’t sound so surprised. The hero always makes it to the end,” Tony said with a smile.

“Look!” Wanda shouted. She stood and pointed up, where two helicopters were flying over the cabin. “Over here!”

“Hey!” Tony shouted with her. Steve and Natasha shouted and waved with the others, trying to catch the helicopter’s attention.

Natasha turned her head suddenly and looked a different direction. “Oh, my god,” she whispered. Steve looked to see a flare explosion in the sky. A hand flew to her mouth. “Bruce… oh, god, Bruce is okay!” She began crying, with Tony to bring her in to a hug.

Steve looked back up as one of the helicopters lowered itself toward them. They had survived. They were all broken in some way, and none of them would ever be the same again, but they survived.


	12. Credits

**ALBERTA POLICE STATION. 7:09 AM.**

“We need to get her to a hospital!” Bruce shouted for the umpteenth time at a nameless policeman.

“Sir, your statements need to come first while the memories are still fresh in your head. We can’t risk losing them. Not my orders, and shouting at me won’t change that,” he said. Before Bruce could suggest exactly where the policeman could shove his opinion, Clint placed a hand on his shoulder. Bruce huffed and didn’t bother the officer any further.

“It’s messed up, but Sharon is tough. She’ll be fine for another hour,” he said.

“She can barely stand on her own. Throwing a blanket on her shoulders won’t solve anything. She needs stitches, x-rays–”

“Just worry about telling them what happened so this doesn’t happen again.” Bruce huffed again. The boys sat on the benches again, where Sam, Bucky, and Laura were sitting as well.

As Natasha was talking to Bucky, Sam had called everyone he could get a hold of. None of the parents had picked up, so he left very detailed voicemails for each one. Wanda’s dad was the only one so far to reply, and saying he’d be there as soon as he could. He was arguing with Sharon’s Aunt Peggy, who had been on the case and going frantic since she first heard about this four hours ago. Sam then called Clint, who was at Laura’s house, and they both beat him and Bucky here to the station. Rhodey and Pepper were hours away, but promised to get there as soon as possible. None of the other parents were around. Most had gone away since their own kids weren’t going to be home, and didn’t expect… well, _this_ to happen.

* * *

 

_Sharon, do you remember what happened?_

“I remember something pulling me through the window and dragged me down… I fell down so far…”

_Where did you fall? Who attacked you?_

“I don’t know… I don’t know.”

_That’s fine Sharon. And you said you were with a Tony Stark?_

“He came for me. He did. Really. Is he okay? Did he make it?”

_We know of four other survivors, but not their names. We’ll find out right away for you, I promise._

“Aunt Peggy said she called an ambulance for me. Is it here yet?”

_Not yet. Now, you said it took you down somewhere. Do you remember where?_

“…”

_What dragged you? Where did it come from?_

“The mines. It’s in the mines.”

* * *

 

Bruce lifted his head as the doors burst open. Everything goes silent as they limp into the room. Steve comes in first, with his arm draped around Tony’s shoulder. Both looked horrible. Wanda followed them, wide-eyed and shaking. She quickly spotted her father and cried. He gathered her in his arms and whispered that everything would be okay. Sam and Bucky crowd around Steve, asking if he was okay and trying to verify something in a notebook Bucky has. Peggy held her arms out and hugged them around Tony, who started crying as well.

Natasha was the last one to walk into the station. Bruce’s eyes went to the marks on her shoulder, and the dried blood on her pants. When she saw him, she ran over and threw herself at him. He caught her and held her close, cradling her head and swaying them side to side.

“I thought you were dead,” he whispered into her neck.

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” she whispered back. Natasha pulled away and brought him in for a short kiss. Oh, god, he never wanted to let her go again.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine. I told you, I’d be perfectly fine. What about you?” she asked.

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

They held each other, staring into each other’s eyes, and ignoring everything around them, including Sharon’s screaming and crying when she exited the interview and saw that Tony was alive.

* * *

 

_So, Robert–_

“It’s Bruce.”

_Where did you go again?_

“We, um, we went to get help. We thought the fire tower was our best bet, but then it started to fall…”

_And you jumped off? Instead of helping Natalia?_

“She insisted that I jump. She wanted me to make sure I was able to get back to the cabin to warn the others.”

_But you didn’t_.

“I was exhausted, and the mines are huge. It’s not like there was a map for me.”

_So then why did you feel compelled to go get help in the first place?_

“Because Thor was dead! Someone killed Thor, and we didn’t want to wait around for him to kill us next!”

_Right. I think I understand now. Is there anything else?_

“Yes. In the mines, there’s this… _thing_. It tried to kill Sharon and me. I don’t know what it was, but I think it lives down there.”

* * *

 

Natasha ended up electing herself and Tony to be the news-breakers to the others. They went up to Mr. Maximoff first, who was still trying to comprehend that one of his sons was dead. Wanda was sitting solemnly on her chair and staring blankly at the floor.

“Your son died trying to save our friend,” Tony said.

Mr. Maximoff grunted. “I know you kids want to make me feel better, but it isn’t helping,” he replied.

“We know. It’s a lot to take in, but we thought you should know. He was always a good friend, wanting to–”

“Kids, please… just don’t.”

Natasha and Tony shared a glance. It was worth a shot, but it had been a long one. They moved on to the Olsons. Both of them had come, and were sitting in the far corner of the station waiting room. The missus was wiping her eyes with a handkerchief, and the mister looked astonished. Natasha and Tony pulled two chairs from the wall and sat across from them. Natasha opened up by pulling the picture and the locket from her pocket and handing it over to the missus, who looked at them in awe.

“Where did you find these?” she asked.

“We found out what actually happened to Loki and Angela last year. I found those in the mines. We, um, found a lot of stuff in the mines,” Natasha answered.

“Don’t hold back. We deserve to know what happened to our children,” Mr. Olson said.

Tony nudged Natasha so she’d continue. “I also found a broken cross with Angela’s name on it. Then I found… I found her head. It looked like she died right away. But Loki…” Natasha looked at Tony to pick up, since he clearly knew more.

“Loki was alive, and starving, and he had no other choice. He had to be desperate. So he… _ate her_ ,” Tony said. Mrs. Olson gasped. Mr. Olson’s expression hardened. “And it changed Loki into this cannibal. There’s this guy who called them wendigoes. And Loki was the biggest one. He was the one who tried to kill us. We wouldn’t have known if… if Thor hadn’t recognized him right before he was killed. We had no other choice but to…”

Mrs. Olson took Natasha and Tony’s hands in hers and held them tight. Mr. Olson squeezed their shoulders. The four sat in silence and let the truth roll over them, and as the Olsons pretend they could accept that their children were dead.

* * *

 

“I thought that we were close, after his brother and sister disappeared. Thor always thanked me for being nice to Loki when no one else was. Loki always had a hard time growing up trying to fit in. Then next thing I knew, Thor gassed me and I woke up naked tied in to a chair. I still can’t believe it…”

_If you need someone to talk to, we can recommend–_

“I don’t want to. I’ll be fine.”

_After a traumatic experience–_

“I said I’m fine. And what happened to me doesn’t matter, because you should be worrying about what is in the mines.”

_And what exactly is_ in _the mines, Steven?_

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

* * *

 

The EMTs did quick assessments of everyone, debating who to take first since they only arrived in one vehicle, and wouldn’t be able to send another one for ten minutes. Sharon was the obvious choice, and Peggy insisted on coming with. Steve, whose body temperature had dropped significantly and had second-degree burns on the back of his neck and shoulders, was to be next, then Tony, with his missing fingers and matching burns all around his body. Natasha offered to wait, insisting the bite wasn’t as bad as it looked.

Peggy ran down the hall after her niece, whom had lost consciousness during the ambulance ride, and was flocked by attendants. One nurse spotted Peggy and quickly rushed over to hold her back.

“Peggy, I know you want to be in there, but you’ll be helping Sharon more by waiting out here so everyone can do their jobs, alright?”

“Claire, my job as an aunt comes before my actual job, and my damn job description is to protect her!” Peggy shouted.

“When was the last time you slept? You look exhausted.”

“Now’s not the time.”

Claire put her hands on Peggy’s face and looked her in the eye. “You need to listen. Over-working yourself isn’t going to solve anything. I can get you a room where you can take a short nap. I’ll grab you some breakfast, and you can wait for the doctors to help her. She’s going to be okay. Say it with me.”

Peggy closed her eyes, a tear slipping down her cheek. “She’s going to be okay,” she repeated.

* * *

 

_Wanda, I know it’s hard, but you need to talk to us about what happened to your brother?_

“…Did you know that Pietro wants to be an Olympic track runner? He’s been pushing himself to run faster. He thinks he’s the next Usain Bolt.”

_Wanda, you need to cooperate with us._

“I don’t want to.”

_Tell us something. Anything. No one else can tell us what happened to your brother, and your friend said that you were the only one who saw._

“I saw his head roll onto the front porch. I don’t know where his body is. Do you know?”

_I’m sorry, but we don’t. Do you have any idea where it might have gone?_

“ _He_. Do not call my brother an ‘it’.”

_I’m sorry. Do you know where he might have gone?_

“…The mines. It’s the only place that makes any sense.”

* * *

 

Steve read Bucky’s sloppy handwriting over and over again. He wasn’t sure of the entirety of what had been happening. Natasha’s verdict to his best friend was the most he’s gotten so far. He hadn’t even known about why she and Bruce were gone, or that Wanda and Pietro were there when Thor was “sawed in half”.

“You can try to get more from Wanda, but she’s not budging,” Sam said.

“This is… this is so fucked up,” Steve said.

“When Natasha was telling me, I thought it was some kind of sick prank,” Bucky admitted.

“I thought so too. Then I was being chased through the basement, and I woke up tied to this chair–”

“Naked, might I add,” Tony interjected.

Steve glared at him. “Really?”

“I’ve seen every inch of you, buddy, in all of your pale glory. Maybe one day Sharon and I can compare notes on the sight.”

Steve looked to Bucky and Sam. “I think putting up with him was the hardest part of the night,” he said half-jokingly.

“Aw, don’t say that, Steve-O. You and I did pretty damn good tonight.” Tony threw an arm around Steve and brought him in for an awkward hug. “We were the best-looking heroes anyone has ever seen.”

Steve rolled his eyes but smiled anyway.

* * *

 

_You called your friends instead of the police?_

“No. I called you guys from the fire tower, then I called my friends because I thought calling you would be redundant. I wanted to make sure someone knew the whole truth about what happened.”

_Right, right. Of course. Your friend James showed up his notes. You mentioned your friend tried to shoot you. Is that right, Natalia?_

“Yes, but can you blame him? We were all turned inside-out. None of us knew if I would turn or not. Obviously, we found out, and he aimed his gun away. I’m fine. That’s all that matters.”

_But you were bitten by… What bit you, exactly?_

“A wendigo. It’s a cannibal. I got away, luckily, but not fast enough.”

_And it bit you where?_

“In the mines. I fell into the mines, and the wendigo chased me out. Considering how strong and fast those fuckers are, I’m surprised I’m not dead right now.”

_What makes you say that?_

“Because I survived, and that’s still surreal to me.”

* * *

 

“Tony!” Pepper shouted as she laid eyes on him. She ran over and pulled him into a hug. “Oh, god, you’re okay – where are your fingers?!”

“I lost them to a bear trap on a table,” Tony answered honestly.

“A bear trap on a – you know what? I’m not going to ask. Of course you did.”

“Aw, that’s sick, man,” Rhodey said as he looked closer at Tony’s hands.

“It’s gonna take some of the fun out of sex, but maybe Pepper’s secretly into that,” Tony teased. Pepper smacked his head. Rhodey pulled him in for a hug, which Pepper soon joined in. Tony smiled and held on to his two best friends tight.

He was so glad they were able to let him joke about this. He was afraid that he’d lose being himself after all of this. If the mountain and the wendigoes had taken that, then he would admit to losing the fight. In his eyes, after all the shit that went down, he knew they had won.

* * *

 

_Anthony, we can’t get anywhere unless you tell us about something other than Steven’s nudity._

“Don’t knock it ‘til you see it.”

_Anthony–_

“Look, I don’t know what else there is to tell you. We thought Thor had finally gone off the deep end. For fuck’s sake, I thought Sharon died, and I blamed Thor for it. I didn’t know…”

_So you left Thor out for dead?_

“Not intentionally! We didn’t know about the wendigo!”

_Wendigo…?_

“Oh, come _on_! I’m definitely not the first person to bring it up! Tall, ugly cannibal that lives in the mines. What, you guys didn’t stumble upon them when you did your investigation last year? The one where you didn’t find Loki in time before he ate his own sister?”

_Let’s not pull focus from the matter at hand. We need to know what happened, and you’re not cooperating. We can always call your father into this–_

“There’s no need to, you jackasses. _Ugh_. I’ll start from the beginning one more time, but if you stop and ask questions, I won’t tell you squat… It all started last year when Natasha dared Bucky to find Loki’s journal…”


End file.
